Why do bees have stingers if using it will kill them?

Bees have a social order very different than ours. Don’t think of a bee colony as a bunch of individuals working togehter, like a city. Instead, think of a colony as a single organism made up of many small parts.

A bee will sting to defend its colony and queen, and it does not care if it dies, since it will never personally reproduce. Its existence is based on ensuring the survival of the hive, not of itself.

Because they never reproduce, there was no reason for a stinger that didn’t kill them to be developed. In fact because it benefits the colony (which, again, more like one thing than several things) by protecting the queen, the ability for the non-reproducing ones to deal as much damage as possible would be beneficial to the colony’s survival.

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