A honey bee colony comprises a single queen, thousands of workers, and hundreds of drones. In the peak seasons, it can have a bee population of up to 100,000. Worker bees are known and feared for their painful stings that can be fatal to people who are allergic. They use stings to protect themselves or the colony as a defense mechanism. They contain a barbed sting, and once they sting, they die. It is ripped off of the body with part of the digestive system. The male bees or drones do not have stingers and are harmless. They are defenseless against predators. The queen bee possesses a smooth stinger. 

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Can a queen bee hurt you?

The queen bee has a straight and smooth stinger and is capable of stinging. They, however, don’t sting  people but use the stinger for other purposes and don’t defend the colony. They rarely sting humans. Their stings are less hurtful than the worker bees. A queen can repeatedly sting since her sting is not barbed.  One of the purposes of the stinger is to introduce the eggs into the brood cells while laying. She also uses it to fight her rivals, other virgin queens, to ensure her position in the hive is not taken. While raising a queen to take over the colony, the bees raise more than one queen. This increases the chance of getting a strong, viable queen. The first one to emerge stings all the others to death. If two queens emerge simultaneously, they fight until one wins. Mated queens rarely leave the brood chambers, and the probability of encountering one is slim. They rarely leave the colony. The workers pamper her, and she does not feed or groom herself. 

What happens if a queen bee stings you?

Sometimes the queen leaves the hive with a swarm in search of a new home. In such a scenario, he will have to move. And unless she is alone, she will allow the workers to protect her. If by any chance you get stung by a queen bee, you will realize she is not injured and can use her stinger multiple times. However, it is not natural for them to do so. Queen breeders rear hundreds of queens and handle them with bare hands without being stung. A mated queen is enlarged, making it lose body flexibility. Curling its body to sting you may be an issue. A virgin queen is flexible enough to curl her abdomen and sting. The venom reservoir of the queen is three times larger than that of a worker bee and stores more venom. The venom glands are active once they emerge from the queen cells, ready to kill rival queens. After mating, the protein content of the venom decreases. 

Do worker bees always die after stinging?

This depends on the victim. When they sting humans or mammals, they always die. This is because an elastic epidermis restricts the bee from retracting the stinger once inserted into the skin. The skin will remain attached to the skin and rips off from the bee’s body, causing it to die. When a bee stings another insect, it can retract its stinger from the victim without problems. As such, it injects venom but continues to survive. 

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Why do drone bees lack a stinger?

The stinger of the queen bee and the female workers is actually a modified ovipositor. This is an organ that is used to lay and position eggs in brood cells. It means that only female bees can possess it since drones don’t lay eggs. They can sting and use the same organ to lay eggs. The queen can use a stinger multiple times though she uses it on other queens.