Importance of the
Queen Bee to your Hive
Fledgling practicing bee keepers should understand that
the queen bee is the most important thing that keeps the hive
alive and flourishing because without her, the hive would die.
The queen bee is the only member of the hive which lays eggs, an
obvious skill which is needed to keep the hive alive and
thriving. This supreme bee is not any mystical creature but just
uses her clout and skills to overpower other virgin bees during
her royal reign, usually lasting up to two years.
Defining the Royal Role
There is a different development process for the queen that is
set apart from the bee colony's population of drone bees. Before
the egg containing the queen bee hatches, she forms inside what
is known as a queen cell and she is fed with royal jelly, a
special oozing discharge created from the heads of younger bees.
The queen bee alone is fed this special jelly which imparts
particular sexual characteristics that are not found in other
bees, particularly the working drone bees.
While most bees all look the same within a hive, you can tell
the different between them and the queen bee because she has a
longer shaped body and does not leave the colony hive except for
mating. In fact, the queen will mate with multiple drones and
then return to the hive to produce thousands of eggs a day to
perpetuate the colony. Without those thousands of eggs a day
laid and the loss of the queen bee, the hive would quickly die
off.
Other Royal Information
The bees in the hive put themselves in great peril on a daily
basis to ensure the survival of the queen bee, particularly when
she leaves the hive to mate with some drones. Without the mating
process, she cannot lay the many eggs needed for hive survival
and unfortunately, things like foul weather can interrupt the
mating.
One of the ways that the queen bee asserts her dominant
authority is to exude a special substance which prompts other
bees to lick off her. The problem for the other bees lies in the
fact that this special substance inhibits their growth so they
do not become mature in a sexual way. Of course, there is a
problem when more than one queen bee exists in a hive at any
given time. Typically, the weaker queen will depart the colony
hive and fly away to find another one in which she can exert her
dominance for her remaining time.
A queen bee may lose her authority in the hive either by dying
(obviously) or when a younger queen bee challenges her and
imparts a killing sting. Being a royal in a buzzing, busy hive
has its downside for the queen bee but it is the call of nature
to perpetuate the species.
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