A queen bee is the primary reproductive female in a honey bee colony, responsible for laying all the eggs that become new bees. An established, healthy colony typically contains only one queen. This single queen ensures the colony’s continuity and organization.
The Single Queen Rule
A healthy honey bee colony is fundamentally structured around the presence of a single queen. Her main role is reproduction, as she lays all the eggs that develop into the colony’s workers and drones. A productive queen can lay up to 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day during peak seasons.
The queen maintains colony cohesion and regulates worker behavior through chemical signals called pheromones. Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) suppresses worker bee ovary development, preventing them from laying eggs. This pheromone also signals the queen’s presence and health, influencing worker activities.
Worker bees attend to the queen, feeding her royal jelly, grooming her, and disposing of her waste. This interaction allows them to distribute her pheromones throughout the hive. This care and pheromone distribution are crucial for the colony’s organized function.
Temporary Multiple Queens
While a single queen is the norm, multiple queens can temporarily exist. This occurs during swarming, a natural colony reproduction process. The old queen leaves the original hive with worker bees to establish a new colony, while the remaining bees raise new queens from specially prepared queen cells.
Several new virgin queens may emerge, but only one will survive to lead the colony. The first virgin queen often eliminates rivals in their cells, or competing queens fight until one remains. Multiple virgin queens might temporarily coexist or leave with smaller swarms.
Another scenario is supersedure, where the colony replaces a failing queen. Worker bees initiate new queen rearing, often alongside the existing queen. This process is more gradual than swarming; once a new queen emerges and mates, the old queen is usually superseded or killed.
Emergency queens are raised when a colony suddenly loses its queen and must quickly create a replacement from young larvae. Workers convert existing young larvae into queen cells. While multiple emergency queens might be started, the colony eventually settles on a single reigning queen.
Life Without a Queen
A honey bee colony cannot survive indefinitely without a queen. Egg-laying ceases, causing a gradual population decline as older bees die without replacement. The absence of queen pheromones disrupts the colony’s social structure and leads to disorganization.
If queenlessness persists, some worker bees activate their ovaries and begin laying unfertilized eggs. These “laying workers” produce only male drones, as they have not mated. This creates a population imbalance, with an excess of drones and dwindling worker bees.
A colony with laying workers is often “hopelessly queenless” because they typically reject an introduced queen. Without new worker bees, the workforce diminishes, making it vulnerable to disease, pests, and inability to forage or maintain the hive. Such a colony will eventually collapse.