What Is the Role of the Queen Bee?
Most species of bees live in colonies, where every member works for the benefit of all. The queen bee is the most important member of a bee colony. Without her, the bee colony collapses. If every other bee in the colony is killed but the queen survives, she can start another colony by herself.
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Overthrow
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A queen bee is sexually mature five or six days after hatching. She kills her mother or any other queen bees in the colony in order for the existing colony to accept her when she returns from her mating flight.
Immunization
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The queen bee mates with several drones in order to get enough sperm to fertilize all of her eggs and to get diverse enough genes to protect the offspring against disease. This in turn helps to immunize the next generation of the colony.
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Egg Machine
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Depending on the species, a queen bee can lay as many as 2,000 eggs a day for one to two years. The eggs grow up to be the workers of the colony. No other bee in the colony can lay eggs.
Consideration
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In order to remain the queen, she secretes a pheromone that suppresses the maturation of all of the other female bees in the colony. If she stops producing the scent, the other bees in the colony may mistake her for an intruder and kill her.
Fun Fact
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The queen bee can select the sex of the eggs that she lays. She does not lay a drone egg until she is at least six months old.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons
