Georgia Certified Beekeeper Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Test Prep

A eusocial unit that includes a queen, many workers, and drones is referred to as a colony. In the context of bee biology and social structure, a colony represents the fundamental organizational unit where all the members fulfill specific roles to ensure the survival and efficiency of the group. The queen's primary role is reproduction, while the workers manage foraging, nursing the young, and maintaining the hive.

Understanding the structure of a bee colony is essential, as it highlights the complex social interactions and division of labor among the different castes. Swarms refer to a group of bees leaving a colony to establish a new one, typically consisting of a queen and some workers, but do not include drones as part of their description. A hive is simply the man-made structure that houses a colony, and an apiary refers to a collection of hives, thus both terms describe the environment rather than the social unit itself. Therefore, colony is the accurate term that encompasses the queen, workers, and drones together as a cohesive unit.