Worker bees undergo a behavioral maturation process, where they specialize on different tasks as they age. Young bees will work as nurse bees, caring for the developing larvae. Middle-aged (2 weeks old) bees will specialize on storing food, guarding, or undertaking. Older bees serve as foragers. However, this behavioral maturation is very plastic, so if all the forager bees were removed, young bees will accelerate their development to become foragers when they are ~1 week old. Similarly, if the nurse bees are removed, some of the foragers can revert back to performing nursing behavior.
- Christina Grozinger, Pennsylvania State University
Bee Informed Partnership