5 Facts About Queen Bees You Probably Didn’t Know

The queen bees are definitely very important members of bee colony. Not only they are physically different from the other bees, but they also have many functions in the beehive which are crucial for its existence. In fact, the queen bee is very important because she is the one that lays eggs. She can lay up to 1.500 eggs a day! This is definitely her most important function.

However, there are many other facts about the queen bee that you may not know. So, here are some of them:

All of the queen bee’s eggs are created equally

When the bees want to replace the queen bee, they start creating new one from the eggs of the existing one. The queen bee

lays eggs that can be fertilized or unfertilized. Drones are created from the unfertilized eggs. From the fertilized eggs bees can create either queen bee or worker bees. This highly depends on the food that bees give to the eggs. Here you can read more about what makes the queen bee queen bee.

The queen bee is dependent on the worker bees

Without the care of worker bees, the queen bee will not survive. The worker bees groom and are feeding the queen bee. Even more, they can also digest her food. This is because the queen bee does not have the same glands as the worker bees have. So, they are feeding her the food that they have already predigested. They are also cleaning around her and take away her waste.

Queen bees do not control the beehive

The name itself may lead to the assumption that queen bees are the true queens and are controlling the colony. However, this is not the case, as there is the fact that the beehive is a democratic community. The bees are dividing their work due to the chemical signals (like pheromones and other) which control them. This is happening intuitively.

The queen bees’ fight for prevailing

Worker bees do not make only one queen bee

. However, in a beehive, more than one queen cannot exist. New queen bees are urging to eliminate their rivals. The new queen will sting and kill the unhatched competitors during the time that they are still in the cells.

Queen bee mates with a male only once in her life

Among the interesting facts about queen bees is the fact that queen bees only mate with a male once in their life. Queen bees live for 2 to 7 years, and this actually depends on the number of males she has mated with. In this lifetime, the queen bee mates only once and stores the collected genetic material in special organ in her body. She lays eggs throughout her whole lifespan only from the mating period in her life. The queens are mating with as many drones as possible, and they do this while flying, in the air. They do this for a day or two, and these are the only day or two in the whole lifetime. After laying eggs multiple times, the queen may run out of genetic material. After this, she will have to be replaced. It is either the bees themselves, or the beekeepers that replace the unfertile queen bee.