The queen bee is the central figure in a honey bee colony. Her primary responsibility is to lay eggs, sustaining the population of the hive. A healthy queen can lay a significant number of eggs daily, sometimes exceeding 1,500 during peak seasons. She is also the source of chemical signals, known as pheromones, which are crucial for regulating colony unity and behavior. These pheromones influence various aspects of hive life, from inhibiting worker reproduction to coordinating colony activities. Worker bees constantly attend to the queen, feeding her and distributing these vital chemical messages throughout the hive.
The Queen’s Fate: Replacement Scenarios
While worker bees typically protect their queen, they may actively replace her if she becomes unfit, a process that can involve her demise. One direct method of removal is “balling,” where worker bees tightly cluster around the queen, surrounding her in a dense mass. This behavior causes her body temperature to rise to lethal levels, effectively overheating and suffocating her. Balling can occur if the colony perceives the queen as a threat, if she is a foreign queen introduced by a beekeeper, or if her performance declines.
This active killing by workers is distinct from other queen replacement processes. In supersedure, the colony raises a new queen to replace an aging, diseased, or underperforming one. During supersedure, the old queen might simply fade away, or she could be killed by the emerging new queen, or even by workers once the new queen is established. Sometimes, both the old and new queen can coexist for a period, termed “efficient supersedure,” before the old queen disappears. Swarming represents a different scenario where the old queen leaves the hive with a portion of the colony to establish a new one, but she is not killed by the remaining bees.
Reasons for Queen Replacement
A colony decides to replace its queen for several underlying reasons. One common reason is an aging queen, whose egg-laying capacity naturally diminishes over time. As she ages, her production of queen pheromones also declines, signaling to the workers that her influence is waning. This reduction in pheromones can trigger the colony to begin rearing a replacement queen.
Poor performance is another significant factor. A queen might exhibit an inconsistent brood pattern, lay unfertilized eggs that produce only drones, or have a low overall egg-laying rate. These signs indicate that she is not adequately contributing to the colony’s growth and population.
Disease or injury can also prompt queen replacement. If a queen becomes sick or physically damaged, her ability to perform her duties, including pheromone production and egg-laying, is compromised. The colony may eliminate a diseased queen to prevent the spread of pathogens throughout the hive. Furthermore, if the queen dies suddenly, the abrupt absence of her pheromones will quickly alert the colony, prompting them to raise an “emergency queen” from existing young larvae. Genetic factors can also play a role, as a queen whose genetics are not optimal for the colony’s overall health and vigor may be superseded.
The New Queen’s Ascent
Once a colony decides to replace its queen, worker bees initiate a specific biological process to raise a successor. They select several young larvae, typically less than three days old, and place them in specialized, vertically oriented queen cells. These cells are distinct from regular hexagonal worker cells, often appearing elongated and peanut-shaped. The chosen larvae receive an exclusive diet of royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion produced by nurse bees. This continuous royal jelly diet triggers the development of a queen’s fully functional reproductive system, distinguishing her from worker bees.
After approximately 16 days from the egg stage, a virgin queen emerges from her cell. Her immediate task is to locate and eliminate any rival virgin queens still developing in other queen cells, often by stinging them through the cell walls. This ensures she becomes the sole queen in the hive. A few days after emergence, the virgin queen undertakes several mating flights, leaving the hive to mate with multiple drones from various colonies in designated drone congregation areas. She stores the collected sperm in a specialized organ, the spermatheca, which will last for her entire egg-laying life. Upon returning, she begins laying eggs, typically within 2-5 days, establishing herself as the new reproductive center of the colony.