Originally posted by eaglem Nope, you´re wrong there. All bees in a hive are actually females except for the drones. The drones do not work at all, They don´t even eat by themself, but are fed by the workers(female) All they do (the lucky ones) is occasionally mate with the queen. Then they die. The little , female, working bees are during a period,towards autumn, very busy with pushing them out or dragging the corpses out of the hive. Drones that don´t leave voluntarily are killed by the busy little females. The working bees are the ones responsible for gathering pollen and nektar and feeding the queen (and the drones). Also interesting is that the drones(male) don´t have a stinger, so they are both harmless and defenseless. (and pretty lazy)
I think your photo is really beautiful. But it shoves a female worker. She´s had a productive life witch you can see on the torn wingtips.