The question of whether bees physically follow their queen is often answered with a simple “no,” but this misses the profound influence she wields over the entire colony. A honeybee colony operates as a single, cohesive entity known as a “superorganism.” The queen’s role is not physical leadership but absolute chemical regulation, ensuring all 40,000 to 60,000 members function in harmony. She maintains this control through specialized scents, guiding the colony’s behavior and physiology.
Chemical Command: The Role of Pheromones
The queen’s influence is primarily exerted through a complex blend of compounds known as Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP), which she secretes from her mandibular glands. QMP is a chemical signal that acts as a social glue, promoting colony cohesion and communicating the queen’s presence. The five main components of QMP work synergistically, including 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid (9ODA).
The primary function of QMP is to maintain the queen’s reproductive monopoly. The pheromone suppresses the development of worker bee ovaries, preventing them from laying eggs. This physiological control ensures the queen remains the sole reproductive member of the hive, focusing workers entirely on colony maintenance and brood care.
QMP also affects worker bee behavior by influencing the brain’s internal chemistry. Exposure to the pheromone reduces dopamine levels in young worker bees, which contributes to the inhibition of ovary activation. This chemical signal primes workers for specific tasks, such as nursing, and helps regulate the age-related progression of duties. The consistent presence of QMP signals stability, indicating the colony does not need to rear a replacement queen.
The Queen’s Attendants: The Retinue
Although the queen does not physically direct the workers, a small group of young workers, known as the retinue or court, is always in close attendance. These bees are highly attracted to the queen’s pheromones, which elicit the retinue response—where they lick, antennate, and groom her. This interaction physically transfers the QMP from the queen’s body to the workers.
The retinue is the essential distribution mechanism for the queen’s chemical messages. After picking up QMP from the queen’s cuticle, these workers interact with other hive members through body contact and trophallaxis (the sharing of food). This continuous, indirect transfer ensures the pheromone spreads to the vast majority of the colony, even those workers who never contact the queen. The pheromone’s presence, not her physical location, influences the behavior of the hive’s inhabitants.
Swarming: When Bees Truly Follow the Queen
There is one major exception to chemical control: swarming, the colony’s natural method of reproduction. Swarming is triggered when the hive becomes overcrowded or resources are abundant, signaling the need for the colony to split. During this process, the original queen leaves the hive, and thousands of worker bees physically follow her.
Before the swarm, workers reduce the queen’s food intake, causing her to lose weight for sustained flight. The old queen departs with a large contingent of older worker bees, leaving the remaining half of the colony to raise a new queen. The departing swarm initially settles in a dense, temporary cluster, often on a tree branch, with workers surrounding the queen for protection.
The primary goal of this cluster is to protect the queen while scout bees search for a suitable new home. Scouts communicate potential nest sites through waggle dances performed on the cluster surface. Once a consensus is reached, the entire swarm takes flight, with workers physically following the queen to the new location. This reproductive flight is the only time the queen is a physical leader, representing a collective decision by the workers to establish a new colony.