Muskan

· 19 Dec 2021

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How long do bees live?

How long do bees live may appear to be a simple question, but it's not as easy as you may assume. There is no single determining factor but interplay among many which decides how long a bee will live. Honey bees have a short lifespan, especially when compared to mammals. Honey bee queens can live for several years, but the rest of the colony is not so fortunate. Here in this article, we are going to explore how long do bees live and what are the factors which determines the life expectancy of different types of bees found in a colony?

Bees

Bees play a crucial part in the global environment. In reality, the honey bee is an essential single pollinator on the planet, ensuring that people and animals have enough food to thrive. They produce honey and wax. Despite their crucial roles, honey bees have a relatively limited lifespan. The lifespan of a honey bee varies depending on whether it is a drone, worker, or queen bee. Here are some of the bee’s life expectancy determining factors:
•    Bee Species
•    Bee Function
•    Weather
•    Interference by humans
•    Disease
•    Pesticides
•    Parasites
•    Hunters

Life expectancy of different types of bees in a colony

A bee colony is a highly structured and intelligent community. Thousands of female worker bees, hundreds of male drone bees, and a single fertile queen bee are part of the bee colony.

•    Drone Bees' Life Expectancy: Adult drones serve no role in a colony of bees. Neither they help with production of wax, nor with food collection or feeding the young ones. Their only role in the colony is to mate with the queen bee. Drone bees exit the beehive six days after emerging from pupae, flying to renowned drone gathering locations and only returning to the hive if they are unable to mate. The successfully mating drones die within minutes or hours of mating with the queen, and the other drone bees live only as long as the worker bees permit. A drone bee has an average lifespan of eight weeks.

•    Worker Bees' Life Expectancy: The first half of a worker's life is spent working within the hive, while the second half is spent searching for food and collecting pollen or nectar. On hot days, worker bees collect water to cool the nest and dilute honey before feeding it to the larvae. Worker bees only live for five to six weeks during the summer because their rigorous labor. They spend their days hunting for food, storing nectar, feeding larvae, and creating honey during this time of year, which is their busiest. Because their fat stores rise and their well-developed glands produce food for larvae, worker bees live longer in the winter — five months or more.

•    Queen Bees' Life Expectancy: The queen bee serves a vital role in the colony and has the maximum lifespan. While a queen bee's general lifespan is two to five years, queen bees have been reported to survive up to seven years, but this is unusual. A new queen rises from her cell about a week later and takes multiple flights to mate with as many as 20 drones. The queen bee seldom leaves the colony after returning to produce her eggs. Following that, the queen bee lays 1,000 to 2,000 eggs every day within the hive.

Honey bees can live anywhere from 3 weeks to 5 years, depending on their position in the hive. Even though we can estimate the average life span of honey bees, a bee's life might be cut short due to many external conditions.


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