Honey bee colonies exhibit a highly organized social structure, where each member performs specific tasks crucial for the colony’s survival. While the queen bee is known for her reproductive role, a central question arises: can worker bees, typically considered non-reproductive, also lay eggs?
The Queen’s Role in Colony Reproduction
In a honey bee colony, the queen is the sole female responsible for reproduction, laying all the eggs that sustain the population. A healthy queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day during peak production periods. Her presence and reproductive activity are vital for colony stability.
The queen maintains control over the colony’s reproductive hierarchy through chemical signals called pheromones, queen mandibular pheromone. These pheromones, distributed throughout the hive by worker bees through contact and food sharing, inhibit the ovarian development of worker bees. This chemical suppression ensures that workers remain functionally sterile, allowing them to focus on tasks like foraging, nursing, and hive maintenance.
When Worker Bees Lay Eggs
Worker bees, though sterile, possess undeveloped ovaries that can become active under specific circumstances. This physiological change occurs when the queen’s suppressive influence diminishes. The primary triggers for worker ovary activation include queenlessness or the presence of a failing queen whose pheromone production has declined.
Without adequate queen pheromones, the inhibition on worker ovarian development is lifted. This allows a small percentage of worker bees to begin developing their ovaries and lay eggs. If a colony remains queenless, worker bees may start laying eggs around 7 days after the queen’s absence, with more appearing after about three weeks.
The Eggs Laid by Worker Bees
Worker bees are unmated, meaning they cannot store sperm to fertilize eggs, so any eggs they lay are unfertilized. Through a process called parthenogenesis, these unfertilized eggs develop exclusively into male bees, known as drones.
The production of only drones has serious implications for the colony’s long-term viability. A colony with laying workers cannot produce new female worker bees, which are essential for foraging and hive maintenance. Over time, as existing worker bees die off without being replaced by new female offspring, the colony becomes a “drone-laying colony,” leading to its decline and collapse.
Colony Response to Laying Workers
A honey bee colony employs several mechanisms to manage the presence of laying workers. One behavior is “worker policing,” where other worker bees identify and remove eggs laid by their fellow workers. This policing favors queen-laid eggs, which carry pheromonal markers that worker-laid eggs lack.
If queenlessness is the cause, the colony will attempt to raise a new queen from existing female larvae or eggs. A successfully mated new queen will then re-establish the pheromone control, which suppresses worker ovarian development and restores the normal reproductive order. However, if the colony fails to raise or accept a new queen, and laying workers persist, the colony will fail due to the inability to produce new female worker bees.