What kind of honeybee makes up 99% of the hive?

Most bee hives contain three types of bees: worker bees, drones, and a queen. The worker bees make up 99% of the hive. They are all female and spend their lives creating the honeycomb and filling it with honey and pollen. There are far fewer male bees, which are called drones. Their primary role is to help the queen produce new bees.

The queen of the hive has the ability to designate the sex of her offspring. Female bees are created by fertilisation, whereas male eggs go unfertilized. Since the role of a drone is to mate with the queen or queens of other hives, less of them are needed to run the colony, therefore the queen fertilises more female eggs. As a result, the female bees, also called the worker bees, make up the majority of the hive.

Honeybees are one of the most collaborative insects in the world. There are thousands of bees in each hive, working together to sustain the colony. The worker bees have different jobs depending on their age. Three weeks after birth, their role consists of cleaning out the cell in which they were born. A few days later, they begin to care for and feed the young. A week or so later, they help store honey and build more honeycomb. Their final role is to gather pollen to feed the hive.