Honeybee colonies function as intricate superorganisms, depending on the health and reproductive output of the queen, who is the sole egg-layer and genetic source for the tens of thousands of workers. Given her singular role, the workers have evolved complex, multi-layered strategies to ensure her continuous safety and productivity. The answer to whether bees protect their queen is unequivocally yes, ranging from intimate, dedicated personal care to aggressive, colony-wide military defense.
Why the Queen is Indispensable
The queen’s primary function is reproduction, laying thousands of eggs daily during peak season. This immense reproductive capacity ensures the continuous renewal of the workforce, which is constantly lost to foraging and natural attrition. Without her prolific egg-laying, the colony population would rapidly decline and cease to exist.
Beyond simply laying eggs, the queen maintains colony cohesion and order through a complex blend of airborne and contact pheromones, collectively known as the Queen Retinue Pheromone (QRP). The most understood component, Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP), acts as a chemical signal that she is present and healthy. This chemical communication suppresses the development of ovaries in worker bees, preventing them from laying eggs and ensuring the queen remains the only fertile female.
The Queen’s Dedicated Retinue
The most immediate form of protection comes from a small, dedicated group of young worker bees known as her retinue or court. This retinue is typically composed of six to ten bees who constantly surround the queen, maintaining antennal contact. Their duties are intimate and focused on her immediate physical needs, functioning as her personal attendants.
Workers in the retinue feed the queen royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion, through a process called trophallaxis, which is directly correlated with her egg-laying intensity. They also groom her body surface by licking, which serves the dual purpose of hygiene and the collection of pheromones. By licking the queen, the retinue picks up the QRP and transfers it to other nestmates through subsequent social interactions, effectively distributing the “queen signal” throughout the hive. This close-contact care physically shields the queen from harm and helps regulate her temperature.
Colony-Wide Defense Against External Threats
Protection scales up to a collective, aggressive defense against larger predators and invaders that threaten the hive structure. Guard bees are specialized workers stationed at the hive entrance, responsible for identifying and responding to threats such as wasps, mice, or rival bees. When a threat is detected, guard bees release alarm pheromones, which quickly recruit hundreds or thousands of additional workers to join the defense.
This collective response often involves mass stinging, which is an altruistic act as the worker bee typically dies after deploying her barbed stinger. For threats like hornets, honeybees employ a unique strategy known as “thermo-balling,” where a large number of workers surround the invader and vibrate their flight muscles to raise the temperature inside the ball to over 113 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat is lethal to the hornet but tolerable for the bees. The physical architecture of the colony also contributes to defense, as workers use propolis, a resinous material, to seal crevices, fortify the nest, and reduce the size of the entrance, acting as a structural barrier against intruders.
Consequences of a Missing Queen
When the queen is suddenly lost, the colony experiences a rapid decline in social order and organization due to the absence of the QRP. If the colony possesses young, fertilized eggs or larvae (less than three days old), workers can initiate emergency queen rearing by feeding these chosen larvae royal jelly. This process attempts to produce a replacement queen, which is the colony’s best chance for recovery.
If no suitably young larvae are present, the loss of queen pheromone, combined with the subsequent loss of brood pheromones, causes some worker bees’ ovaries to develop. These workers, known as “laying workers,” begin to lay unfertilized eggs which can only develop into male drones. Since workers cannot mate, the colony is unable to produce new female workers, leading to a population composed only of aging female workers and new drones. This reproductive dead-end halts the workforce renewal, causing the colony to inevitably dwindle and collapse.