The Role of a Queen Bee in a Beehive
Bees are fascinating creatures, but the most vital member of a beehive is a single bee: the queen bee. Although the worker bee and drone are important, the queen is the heart of the colony and ensuring a colony's survival and productivity. Knowing adequately about the queen bee, beekeepers and nature lovers can grasp the intricacy of the bee community.
In this article you can read about how a queen bee lives, her work and how it impacts the health and stability of the hive.
Who is the Queen Bee?
A bee colony has only one fertile female, called the queen bee. Her abdomen is longer, more elongated, and she is much larger than worker bees. The queen is not involved in foraging for food, building honeycombs or defending a hive like other bees. Her main function is as a reprooder, guaranteeing the populace of the nesting colony stays healthy and solid.
How is a Queen Bee Born?
A queen bee is not born a queen — she’s selected. There are some cool steps along the way in selecting and raising a queen:
Egg Stage
A queen bee begins its life just like all other bees, as an egg laid by an active queen. Worker bees choose several fertilized eggs to become potential new queens.
Larva Stage
The selected larvae are then fed royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion secreted by worker bees. This particular diet initiates genetic and physiological shifts in the larva that enable it to grow into a queen.
Pupa Stage
After approximately five days of being fed, the larvae are sealed into special queen cells, which are vertical. They transform in side, which grow into adult queen bees.
Emergence
After approximately 16 days, the newly-emerged queen eats her way out of the cell. If multiple queen larvae were raised, the first queen to emerge will usually go on to kill her rivals in order to cement her reign.
The Mating Flight: Checking Genetic Diversity
Soon after she emerges, the new queen readies for her mating flight. This is an important event deciding the fate of the colony.
Leaving the Hive
A few days after emerging, the queen leaves the hive to mate. She flies to a drone congregation area, where males (called drones) from many different colonies are present.
Mating with Multiple Drones
Queens mate with 10-20 drones mid-flight. This promotes genetic diversity that makes the colony more resistant to diseases and environmental changes.
Storing Sperm for Life
After mating, the queen stores millions of sperm cells in her spermatheca. She will use it to fertilize eggs for the rest of her life.
Once her mating flight is done, she goes back in the hive and starts laying eggs within days.
Eggs: The Sole Purpose of the Queen
During peak seasons, a healthy, mated queen can lay as much as 2,000 eggs in a day. She decides which eggs are fertilized (the resultant larvae develop into female worker bees) and which are not (these hatch into male drones).
The Queen Chooses the Type of Egg
- Worker Bees (Female): Fertilized eggs are laid in worker-sized cells.
- Drones (Males): Unfertilized eggs are deposited in wider drone cells.
- New queens: If the colony requires a new queen, fertilized eggs will be laid into specially prepared queen cells and fed royal jelly.
Egg Distribution in the Hive
She lays eggs in a brood pattern as she moves across the hive in a methodical manner. This organization creates efficiency in brood care.
- Pheromones: The Communication System of the Queen
- The queen bee directs the entire colony using pheromones, chemical signals that help control the hive’s foraging, brood care, and even hygiene behavior.
QMP (Queen Mandibular Pheromone)
This primary pheromone:
- Inhibits egg-laying by worker bees.
- Keeps colony peace with signal that queen is around
- Encourages the worker bees to forage and rear the young.
Swarm Prevention
A well-mated queen produces sufficient pheromones to inhibit swarming (in which a portion of the colony takes off to find a new hive). But if her pheromone levels fall with age, workers might get ready to replace her.
What Happens if the Queen Dies or Becomes Incapacitated?
A queen bee isn’t immortal. If she weakens, becomes infertile, or dies, the hive leaps into action — her lifespan is 2 to 5 years.
Emergency Queen Rearing
If a queen dies suddenly, (the worker bees) select young larvae and feed it royal jelly to make a replacement queen.
Supersedure (Replacing an Old Queen)
If the queen is weak or failing, worker bees will sneakily replace her by raising a new queen while the old one still lives. The new queen takes over, and the old queen is slain (or permitted to die of old age).
Swarming and Queen Replacement
When the colony becomes too crowded, a portion of the colony, with the old queen, will leave and search for a new home. The queen that the colony raises stays in the original hive to allow its survival.
Management Strategies for Beekeepers and Queen Bees
Part of a beekeeper’s work to keep a happy, healthy hive is keeping an eye on the queen’s performance, and replacing her if needed.
Queen Marking and Identification
Beekeepers often paint their queens with colored paint to keep track of their age and behavior.
Queen Requeening (Queen Replacement)
If the rate of egg-laying by the queen declines, beekeepers may insert a new queen, to maintain colony health.
Preventing Swarming
Beekeepers manage hive space or split colonies, or replace aging queens, all in an effort to control colony behavior and avoid the loss of part of the colony.
Conclusion
The queen bee is the beating heart of the hive, in charge of reproduction, continuity and the hive's sociopolitical equilibrium. The colony cannot survive without her, and so when she weakens or dies, the bees spring into action to replace her. The queen’s work gives beekeepers insight into managing healthy colonies and appreciation for the staggering complexity of bee society.
Beekeepers' care for their queens and their maintenance has advantages beyond their individual hives; it benefits the whole ecosystem dependent upon them for pollination. For the expert or novice beekeeper, the transformation of respecting and managing the queen bee into good beekeeping will be appreciated.
