The queen bee is the sole reproductive female in a honey bee colony. She maintains colony cohesion, regulates hive behavior, and ensures the continuous production of new bees. During peak seasons, the queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs daily, providing the necessary workforce. She also produces pheromones that organize and coordinate the entire hive’s activities.
Immediate Colony Disruption
The sudden absence of a queen bee causes immediate disruption within the colony. Worker bees quickly sense the drop in queen pheromones, which normally regulate nearly every aspect of colony life. These pheromones suppress worker bee egg-laying and maintain overall hive unity. Within hours of the queen’s death, the colony experiences confusion and unrest, leading to increased agitation among worker bees.
Disoriented worker bees may halt regular foraging activities as their focus shifts inward. The hive enters an “emergency mode,” characterized by a distinct, agitated buzz. Worker bees might also become more ill-tempered and prone to stinging without the queen’s calming influence.
The Colony’s Attempt to Replace the Queen
Upon recognizing queenlessness, worker bees initiate an urgent process to raise a new queen. They identify young female larvae, ideally those less than three days old, as suitable candidates for queen development. These selected larvae, normally destined to become worker bees, are housed in specially constructed emergency queen cells. These cells are typically larger and oriented vertically, often resembling peanuts dangling from the comb.
The worker bees provide these chosen larvae with an exclusive and abundant diet of royal jelly throughout their larval stage. This specialized nutrition triggers significant morphological changes, allowing the larva to develop into a queen rather than a worker. A new queen typically emerges approximately 16 days after the egg was laid, or about 13 days from the larval hatching. After emergence and successful mating flights, the new queen begins laying eggs, usually within a week or so, signaling the colony’s recovery efforts.
Potential Outcomes for the Colony
Following the attempt to replace a lost queen, a colony can experience several different outcomes. In a successful scenario, a newly emerged queen will eliminate any remaining queen cells, mate, and then commence egg-laying, leading to the colony’s recovery and continued growth. This ensures the hive’s population is replenished and its functions resume.
However, if the colony fails to raise a new queen, perhaps due to the absence of suitably young larvae, the situation deteriorates. Without the queen’s pheromones to suppress their reproductive development, some worker bees may begin to lay unfertilized eggs. These “laying workers” can appear around three weeks after the colony becomes queenless and their eggs develop only into drones, or male bees.
A colony with laying workers exhibits a spotty brood pattern, often with multiple eggs haphazardly laid in a single cell. Since these laying workers cannot produce female worker bees, the colony’s population dwindles as older bees die off, eventually leading to the hive’s decline and collapse. A queenless colony can survive for approximately 2-3 months before ultimately failing.
Key Factors Determining Colony Survival
Several conditions influence a colony’s ability to successfully replace its queen and survive. The presence of young larvae or eggs (ideally less than three days old) is necessary, as these are the only individuals that can develop into new queens. The younger the larva selected, the higher the quality of the resulting queen.
The overall size and strength of the colony also play a significant role, with larger, healthier hives having a greater chance of successfully raising a new queen. Adequate stores of honey and pollen are similarly important, providing the necessary nutrition for the developing queen and sustaining the colony during this vulnerable period. The time of year can further affect success, as it impacts the availability of resources and drones for mating. Mild weather and a consistent nectar flow during the queen-rearing process can significantly improve the chances of a new queen’s acceptance and successful establishment.