North Carolina Certified Beekeepers Practice Test 2025 – The All-in-One Guide to Master Your Certification!

In a honey bee hive, the primary types of bees present are worker bees, drones, and a queen. Worker bees perform numerous essential roles within the hive, including foraging for food, caring for the brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae), cleaning the hive, and defending it. Drones are male bees whose main role is to mate with a queen during the mating flight, and they do not contribute to hive maintenance or foraging. The queen bee is the reproductive female, responsible for laying eggs to ensure the hive's population is maintained.

The presence of larvae is not counted as a bee type; larvae are the immature life stage of bees. Soldier bees are not formally recognized as a distinct category in honey bee biology; it's typically the worker bees that also fulfill defensive roles. Lastly, having only drones and a queen would not adequately sustain the hive, as worker bees are crucial for various vital functions. Therefore, the combination of worker bees, drones, and a queen accurately represents the typical composition of a beehive.