Nutrition is an important regulator of behavior in many species. Despite enormous differences in feeding strategies, conserved genes regulate feeding in taxa ranging the full spectrum of multicellular organisms. However, the mechanisms by which metabolism and nutrient sensing act on social behavior are poorly understood. Adult worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) show a strong pattern of behavioral development; they shift from brood care (“nursing”) and other in-hive tasks to foraging outside the hive at 2-3 weeks of age. Previous work has shown that behavioral development entails changes in metabolic physiology and brain gene expression, and nutritional deprivation accelerates the age at onset of foraging. We hypothesized that nutritional mediation of behavioral development occurs via plasticity in pathways that regulate more simple feeding behaviors in solitary organisms. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a well-characterized regulator of feeding that increases food intake and food-searching behaviors in both vertebrates and invertebrates. We identified two genes that encode NPY-like peptides in the honey bee, npf and snpf, and a single gene encoding an NPY-family receptor, snpfr. npf and snpf are expressed in separate populations of brain neurosecretory cells and in abdominal tissues, while snpfr is expressed in both brain and abdomen. snpfr and npf transcripts are more abundant in forager brains than nurse brains. Both acute and chronic food deprivation increased brain expression of snpfr but not npf or snpf. Together, these results suggest this is a promising pathway for further study as a mechanism controlling behavioral development in honey bees.