What Does the Queen Bee Do?

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The major purpose of the queen is to lay eggs. During April and May she lays day and night, each egg taking about 20 seconds. That’s over 2000 eggs a day, more than her own body weight. The queen mates only once and holds sufficient sperm from the male drones to lay eggs for 3-5 years, incidentally the drone bee dies in the process which must come as a major disappointment for him.

There are 3 types of wax cell used for eggs. In the smallest cells (5mm diameter) she lays fertilized eggs, which in 21 days produce the female worker bees. In larger cells (7mm diameter) unfertilized eggs are laid which in 24 days become the male drone bees, production of offspring not requiring mating is known as parthenogenesis. As the drone is from an unfertilized egg he has half the chromosomes (16) of a worker bee (32).

A very special cell that hangs vertically downwards is used to produce new queens. A colony producing queen type cells warns the beekeeper of an impending swarm. See ‘How Do Bees Make a Queen'.

A male drone bee has no father but does have a grandfather!

A healthy queen bee is continually emitting pheromones (a bee perfume) that only the bees in the hive can smell. These pheromone odors tell the bees in the colony that the queen is still with them and all is well in the hive. This chemical pheromone communication is quite sophisticated and the ‘personality’ of a beehive will change if the beekeeper changes an old queen for a young one. Just as the personality of the beekeeper might change if he swaps his old wife for a young one J. In this way a beekeeper has some control over the temper and enthusiasm of a colony.

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