Honeybee
(Adopted 1977)

Our best-known bee is a single social species first introduced from Europe during the colonial period. Our most important pollinators, most Honey Bees still live in manmade hives, but many wild colonies also thrive, usually in hollow trees. Unlike most social bees and wasps, all of the castes in Honey Bee colonies survive through the winter. In fact, new hives cannot be started by the queen alone. A hive normally contains only a single queen. A new queen is produced by feeding a larva a special type of food. She may be killed by the reigning queen or one of the two may fly off with part of the colony and start a new hive. The only other occasion on which the queen leaves the is to engage in a mating flight with the drones. These males are produces for this purpose alone, and only one succeeds in mating. Drones remaining in the colony after the queen has been fertilized are killed by the workers.