Worker of Six Weeks

Worker of Six Weeks takes the listeners through the lifecycle of a female worker bee. Worker bees' jobs change as they grow older which is called behavioral maturation. While young adults, they are nurses that take care of their half-sisters since honey bees are eusocial. Then they are middle-aged adults that do jobs like comb-building, fanning, guarding, and others that stay mostly within the nest. Finally, they are elders that venture out to gather resources like pollen, nectar, and water which is the most dangerous job. They die either in the nest and are carried out, or die from old age or from the hazards outside the nest. Each of the movements highlights parts of a particular bee's life. The first is of her chewing her way out of her cap, taking her first steps, and quickly getting to work as a nurse. The second is of her working as a guard and defending against a wasp and then a human beekeeper. The third is her venturing outside of the nest, collecting nectar, and then instructing other bees where to find the patch of flowers before dying.