Queen Bee Project

Queen bee:

 The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of most, if not all, the bees in the hive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive. Queen bees live for two years and produce 2,000 eggs a day. A queen honey bee is around 20 mm in size. Her most important anatomical characteristics are her female reproductive organs, such as the Spermatheca.

 

 

 

Roles of the Queen Bee

Besides mating and laying eggs the Queen Bee serves several substantial parts in the life of bees:

 

 

  • Control Sex of Eggs

The Queen Bee is the only female reproductive leader of the hive, and besides laying eggs, she also controls the sex of those eggs. When she lays eggs, it’s predetermined as to what role they’ll assume after hatching because of the width of the cell they are kept in.

  • The Diversity of the Colony

DNA of a Queen Bee has 32 chromosomes where the former Queen Bee has given 16, and 16 by the Drone Bee. A Queen thus mates with several drones to ensure the genetic diversity of the future generation of the community.

  • Division of Labor

Queen Bees are the director of the hive as she is responsible for assigning duties to the worker bees, and control and direct their behavior. Besides assigning duties, the Queen Bee also ensures the population balance of the colony for the sake of a structurally sound hive. To dictate the specific behavior and role each bee will assume the Queen Bee releases special pheromone chemicals. These chemicals are a way of communication, and bees decode the chemical signals and take up the role of worker or drone in light of these signs.

  • Queen Cups:

The average lifespan of the queen bee is 2 – 3 years, but in favorable conditions, she can live up to 5 years. But the life of a Queen Bee majorly depends upon worker bees as they can kill the existing Queen or raise a new one. The egg which is bearing a future Queen Bee resides in dome-shaped wax cups which are known as Queen cups. If the Queen Cup is acknowledged by other bees and is given a green signal to produce the future queen, then worker bees form a queen cell by drawing out the comb and place the Queen cup having an egg and white liquid in that cell.

  • Royal Treatment:

The Queen Bee is given royal treatment in the hive, and once queen cup is formed, the worker bees start caring for the future queen by providing her larvae more space to grow. They draw out the comb to up to 25mm in length and cover the cell with a layer of wax.

The Queen Bee is the only bee which is served with royal jelly by the worker bees throughout her larval stage. The Queen cup hatches after 16 days.

  • Role in Swarming:

The colonies go swarming when the hive is overcrowded with bees. In this, the Queen’s role will still be to lay eggs while worker bees start generating queen cups and nurturing future Queens. When the worker bees feel that the colony is crowded enough for swarming, they stop feeding the Queen. The Queen herself is unable to eat and relies on workers to feed her; therefore this boycott and starving force her for the imminent flight. The Queen with half of the colony makes a flight from the hive to a new location. Collectively they form the swarm.

  • Queen’s Death:

In the life of bees, a colony makes critical decisions like the fate of the Queen Bee and swarming. The Queen Bee releases a chemical as an indicator of her health. This notifies worker bees that she is healthy. But when the Queen pheromone becomes weak, and workers don’t find it sufficiently concentrated, they stop feeding the queen because there are too many workers at her disposal, and they can’t work for a sterile queen. This starves the Queen to either death or forces her to leave the colony, and make a flight. In due time workers raise a new Queen for the colony.

Bee Life Cycle – Different Stages of Honey Bee and Queen Bee

 

 

Queen Bee Rearing

  • Timing of queen rearing

The best time of the year to rear queens is when pollen and nectar are abundant and there are enough drones present to ensure successful mating. In temperate Asia, this is the period between mid-spring and mid-summer, while in tropical zones the best season is often between June and late October or early November

  • A Simple Queen Rearing Technique
  • Day 1 – Give breeder hive an empty dark brood comb to lay eggs in.
  • Day 4 – Transfer (graft) larva into artificial queen cell cups, from the breeder comb. Place the frame into a strong colony (cell builder) made queenless the day before.
  • Day 14 – Remove completed cells from cell builder. Leave one cell behind to replace the queen. Keep queen cells warm (80-94 F) until they are placed in queenless hives (mating nucs).
  • Day 22 – Virgin queens are ready to mate. They require nice weather (69 F), and an abundance of drones to mate with. A few colonies within a mile are adequate for providing drones for mating.

 

 

  • Day 27 – If queens mate without weather delay, they should now be laying eggs.
  • Weather delays in mating will add days to the process, after 3 weeks delay, virgin queens may start to lay unfertilized eggs.
  • Time your activities so that warm temperatures and drones are available when the queens are ready to mate.