 The female bees (worker bees and queens) are the only ones that can sting, and their stinger is a modified ovipositor.The queen bee has a barbed but smoother stinger and can, if need be, sting skin-bearing creatures multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions.Her sting is not for defense of the hive; she only uses it for dispatching rival queens, ideally before they can emerge from their cells.