Workers are the non-reproducing females that do the colony's work. They make up almost the entire population.

Division of labour by age

A worker does different jobs through her life, determined by which of her glands are active at the time.

• First days: Cell cleaning
• Then: Brood care — the brood food glands are working
• Then: Comb building — the wax glands are working
• Then: Processing nectar, storing, ventilating
• Then: Guarding
• Final stage: Foraging

The order is not fixed. It flexes with the colony's needs: if there are no nurse bees, young bees become foragers early; if there are no foragers, some may return to inside work.

Lifespan

In season a worker lives for weeks; a winter bee for months. What creates the difference is a well-developed fat body.

Varroa feeds on precisely that tissue. This is why the late-summer mite load determines the winter.

Special structures

• Pollen basket: On the hind legs; carries pollen and propolis
• Wax glands: Under the abdomen; secrete wax scales
• Brood food glands: In the head; produce larval food
• Honey stomach: Carries nectar
• Sting: Barbed; it cannot be withdrawn from mammalian skin

Laying workers

In a colony that has been queenless for a long time the ovaries of some workers develop and they begin to lay.

Those eggs are unfertilised and give only drones. The colony cannot renew itself and dwindles away.

The signs: raised drone brood in worker cells, multiple eggs per cell, eggs laid on the cell wall.

Such colonies almost never accept a new queen; uniting is usually the more practical course.

Communication

Workers tell each other the location of forage by dancing. They also give alarm, direct one another and share the state of the colony through pheromones.

The alarm pheromone released by a crushed bee puts the colony on the defensive — this is the reason for working calmly during an inspection.