Honey bees live in highly social colonies where members cooperate to gather food, shelter, and protect one another. Their social structure contains three castes - queens, drones, and workers. Queens are the only reproductive females and lay all the eggs. Drones are male bees that fertilize the queen. Workers are sterile females that perform all colony maintenance tasks, from building comb to foraging. Workers progress through indoor and outdoor labor activities over their lifespan, including secreting wax, feeding brood, and collecting nectar. They communicate food sources to each other through round and waggle dances. Honey bees demonstrate an organized division of labor that is essential for colony survival.

1. Social Behaviour in Honey Beeshttp://www.insectidentification.org/imgs/insects/honey-bee.jpg
By: Biji Saro Varghese
B.Sc -I

2. Features of social behaviour
 Social insects always live in a large
population.
 Members of colony cooperate with each
others for food ,shelter and protection.
 It shows polymorphism.

3. Castes of honey bee
•Queen
•Drones
•Workers

4. The Queen
 Only reproductive female
 Feeds on Royal Jelly
 Mates once
 Egg laying is the only
function
 Secretes Queen Factor
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/978/50493395.JPG

5. Drones
 Haploid males developed from unfertilized
eggs.
 It fertilize queen.
 Die shortly after mating.
 They are dependent and begging honey
from the workers
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/978/50493401.JPG

6. WorkersWorkers
 Imperfectly developed
Females from fertilized eggs.
 Smaller in size than queen
and drones.
They are responsible for
maintanence and wellfare of
the colony

7. Labor Activities ofLabor Activities of
WorkersWorkers
During first half of her life
she attends indoor activities.
•Secretion of royal jelly,bees wax.
•Feeding of brood,queen.
•Building combs, cleaning, ventilating,
cooling, guarding hive, evaporating the
nector and storing the honey.
During second half of her life she performs
outdoor activities
•Collection of nectar, pollen, propolis and
water.

8. Outdoor worker bees
Searchers
Gatherers
Searcher bees searches for
the food where as
gatherer bees gather the
food

9. Worker Bee Dances
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/hebrew/personal/language/animals/bees.gif

10. Round dance
•The searcher bee run
in circle.
•This dance indicates
that the food source is
less than 100 meters
from the hive

11. Waggle dance
This dance indicates
that the food source
is located more than
100 meter
The searcher runs for a
short distance in straight
line and then moves in a
semicircle.

13. Charachteristic features of Bees
 Teaches us a lesson of work and work
with cooperation.
 Organized system of division of labour.
 A medium size colony consist only one
queen, 300-500 drones and 25000-35000
workers.
 Drones dies after mating.
 Worker bee posses powerful sting with
poison gland together called poison
apparatus.

14. Thank You