What insect's hive can contain up to 60,000 individuals?

The honey bee is the insect whose hive can contain up to about 60,000 individuals. In a strong colony, most of those bees are female workers performing tasks that keep the society alive.

A honey bee colony operates like a superorganism. One queen lays eggs, workers clean cells, feed larvae, produce wax, guard the entrance, regulate temperature, and collect nectar and pollen, while drones primarily mate with queens. Worker numbers rise during the warm season, when flowers provide abundant food, and fall during winter or periods of scarcity.

The phrase “hive” can be misleading because it may mean the human-made structure or the colony living inside it. The bees themselves form the colony, storing honey and pollen in hexagonal wax cells and raising young in nearby brood cells. Honey bees are also unusual among many bees because their colonies are perennial: they can survive for years rather than dying after one nesting season. Population figures vary widely, so 60,000 is a peak or upper-size estimate, not a fixed count.