Everyone knows there is one special bee in the hive—the mother of all bees, the fertile daughter, and even the genetic source of every bee in the colony.

A virgin queen usually goes unnoticed and receives no special treatment until she mates.

A laying queen, however, becomes the center of the hive’s universe. She is constantly groomed and fed by a rotating group of house bees. As her scent spreads from bee to bee throughout the hive, it signals that everything is functioning properly. Even something as minor as damage to a foot gland can disrupt these chemical signals and prompt the colony to replace her.

The queen moves methodically across the comb in a spiral pattern, laying up to 3,000 eggs per day. Every few minutes she pauses to be fed and groomed before continuing her work.

Emergency Measures

If there is no laying queen, the colony immediately begins trying to correct the situation—if it can.

The primary difference between a queen and a worker is nutrition during development. For the first three days, both are fed the same diet. After that, worker larvae are switched to a lower-protein diet. Any female larva less than three days old can be transformed into a queen if the workers continue feeding her the richer diet. In this way, larvae originally destined to become workers can be redirected and raised as queens.

If the hive cannot raise a new queen—because there is no brood of the proper age, for example—the colony does something remarkable. Worker bees, which have never mated, begin laying unfertilized eggs. These eggs develop into drones. Since drones do little besides eat and mate, the colony will soon collapse.

From an evolutionary perspective, however, this strategy makes sense. A colony that cannot survive to produce new queens will use its remaining energy and food stores to produce drones. These drones fly out to mate with virgin queens from other colonies, passing on the hive’s genetic material to future generations.

The Making of a Monarch

A queen’s life begins much like that of any other bee, but with added privileges and responsibilities.

A virgin queen emerges from a queen cell, which resembles a peanut shell and differs from worker cells in size, shape, and orientation. Upon emerging, she often destroys other queen cells by stinging through them. If other virgins have already emerged, she will fight them to the death.

Afterward, she spends several days walking largely unnoticed while her exoskeleton hardens and she gains strength. Eventually, she mates and may replace (or supersede) the existing queen. It is not uncommon for a mother and daughter queen to lay in the same hive for a time, but the daughter will ultimately take over.

Why a New Queen Is Raised

A colony may raise a new queen under several circumstances:

1. Supersedure
The colony may perceive the existing queen as unsuitable. She may be old, injured, sick, or poorly mated. Other factors—such as disease, insufficient food, or too few workers to care for brood—can also trigger replacement.

2. Swarming
When a colony is strong and prosperous, it may reproduce itself by swarming. As the population grows, the queen’s pheromones may become too diluted to regulate the colony effectively. A shortage of pheromone signal—or a lack of empty comb for egg laying—triggers the swarming impulse.

The primary swarm leaves first and includes the old, mated queen. At that time, there are often multiple capped queen cells remaining in the hive. Workers sometimes drum on these cells, possibly to delay the emergence of additional queens until later swarms depart.

Secondary swarms are usually smaller, may travel farther, and contain one or more virgin queens. These swarms are often small and may struggle to build up sufficiently before winter.

3. Emergency Replacement
If the queen is suddenly lost or disabled, workers will create an emergency queen from a larva less than three days old. The bees recognize the queen’s absence within minutes and respond immediately. If she is confined to one area of the hive, emergency queen cells are often built in areas where her pheromones are weakest.

Raising Emergency Queens (Beekeeper Intervention)

Beekeepers can also raise queens by grafting. A young worker larva is removed from its cell and placed into a queen cup. The cup is then introduced into a queenless colony, often along with many other grafted larvae, and the bees raise them as queens.

The resulting queen cell may be placed into a colony, where the virgin queen will emerge, mate, and become the new laying queen. Alternatively, she may emerge into a cage and remain there until introduced into a colony—with or without an existing queen. If introduced into a colony with a laying queen, she will usually supersede her.

Emergency queens are just as capable as any other queens when properly raised. For best results, use larvae less than three days old and provide a frame containing brood in all stages.

Nutrition Makes the Queen

Queens and workers are genetically identical. The only difference is their diet during development.

Enhanced nutrition produces a larger thorax and abdomen and allows full development of the reproductive organs. In essence, a worker is a nutritionally restricted queen.

Before mating, a virgin queen looks quite different on the comb. Her thorax appears large, her abdomen small and compressed, and her movements quick and agile. After mating flights, workers feed her heavily, causing her abdomen to expand to support egg production.

If the colony anticipates swarming or absconding, workers may slim the queen down so she can fly more easily.

The Power of Pheromones

The queen’s mandibular glands (in her mouth) and tarsal glands (in her feet) produce chemical signals that influence worker behavior. The balance and quantity of these pheromones—along with others not yet fully understood—communicate the queen’s health and vitality to the colony.

Through constant grooming and contact, workers spread these pheromones throughout the hive, maintaining order and cohesion.