Each colony of honeybees consist of three classes: a) the queen who is prolific layer of eggs; b) the workers who is bulwark of the colony; and c) the sedentary drone whose only function is to mate with a young queen. The queen lays the eggs that hatch into thousands of female workers; some queens live as long as five years and lay up to one million eggs. The frugal worker builds and maintains the nest, collects and stores the honey, and is the antithesis of the lazy drone, or female honeybee, who does no work and has no sting. When the drone is no longer needed, the workers, in effect, liquidate him by letting him starve to death. It’s a cruel, cruel world!
- prolific- subur
- layer – petelur
- bulwark- benteng pertahanan
- sedentary- menetap
- drone- lebah jantan
- hatch- menetas
- frugal- sederhana
- antithesis- berkebalikan
- liquidate- membasmi
- starve – kelaparan