A hive is composed of a queen, male drones and  workers.

The queen is the central pillar of the bees' reproduction. It's the biggest one. It lays around 2000 eggs per day during spring.

There are two types of workers : the ones who focus on the domestic tasks and the ones who gather pollen and nectar.The creation of honey includes : ventilation, wax building, nectar collecting and its transfer. Then, for the safeguard of the colony, the workers take care of the other bees. They look after the good development of larvas, feed the queen and the male drones.

Bees also insure their security trough their sting.

The drones haven't got any sting and there're only there to mate with the queen.
During the winter, the bees are also able to eject them out of the hive.
 
In brief a hive is a hierarchical system defined on the power of the queen.