Honey bee life cycle lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs. Each unfertilized egg contains a unique combination of 50% of the queen's genes and develops into a haploid drone. The fertilized eggs develop into either diploid workers or virgin queens if fed royal jelly. The average lifespan of a queen is three to four years; drones usually die upon mating or are expelled from the hive before the winter; and workers may live for a few weeks in the summer and several months in areas with an extended winter. The weight progression of the worker egg, larva: Honey bee life cycle The honey bee life
Honey bee surface of the comb, which is horizontal (not vertical, as in other species), and worker bees orient the dance in the actual compass direction of the resource to which they are recruiting. "Apis mellifera carnica" honey bees use their antennae asymmetrically for social interactions with a strong lateral preference to use their right antennae. There has been speculation as to honeybee consciousness. The bee was used as a symbol of government by Emperor Napoleon I of France. Both the Hindu "Atharva Veda" and the ancient Greeks associated lips anointed with honey with the gift of eloquence and even of prescience.