The Queen bee is the mother or sister of all the bees in a hive. A queen bee is born when worker bees feed a bee larva royal jelly–and only royal jelly–throughout its entire development, rather than feeding it pollen as is normally done. This happens in especially large comb cells and the entire process of creating a queen bee takes just over 2 weeks. Worker bees create multiple queens simultaneously but there can only be one per hive. So the first queen bee born must kill all would-be contendres to her throne before they emerge from their royal cells. If the queen ceases to breed regularly, workers will create a new queen bee. The two queels will then duel to the death. If isolated from the hive, the larger queen wll always win but, and scientists don’t know how exactly, but workes can somehow influence the outcome of the duel, preventing the larger queen from winning automatically. The victorious queen bee will take over the hive.
The queen bee serves the very important funciton of propagating the hive and, after mating with drone bees, the queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs every single day. The queen rarely leaves the colony. She is fed and cared for by worker bees, who also hurse her brood and regulate the temperature of the hive to a standard 33 degrees Celsius.
Unlike other types of bees, the queen bee doesn’t make honey or beeswax or collect pollen. But she does have another unique and important task. She produces pheromenoes that attract, control, and regulate the behaviors of worker bees and helps keep the hive together during migrations.
Queen Bee Physical characteristics
The queen bee has a long body compared to other types of bees in hive ( up to19mm), a smaller head, and a pointed abdomen. Unlike the worker bees, her legs don’t have any pollen-collecting sacs becuase she will never go out of the hive to collect pollen from a flower. She also takes no part in building the combs. Additionally, her sting is less barbed, allowed it to be used without killing her.
