The peculiarities of a queen bee

The peculiarities of a queen bee

You probably already kew that a bee colony can’t survive with a bee queen. But did you also know that it is not her job to 'control' the other bees? Its only job is to lay eggs and make the bee colony grow exponentially. Yet our queen bee is quite special! Time to briefly explain all her superpowers.

Physical appearance

Okay we admit it, it's not immediately obvious to everyone. But once you've spotted the queen among the other bees, you’ll have to do a lot of effort to lose her. She is quite a bit bigger than the worker bees.

Lifespan

You’ll not only notice a difference in physical appearance. The life cycle between the queen and the worker bees is also remarkably different. A common worker bee lives an average of 4 to 6 weeks during the summer months. In winter, their lifespan is a lot longer, namely 5 to 8 months. A queen, on the other hand, can live for 5 to 7 years!

One is none

As we mentioned, the queen's only job is to lay eggs. And so she does; every day she lays no less than 1500 - 2000 eggs. That is about her own body weight in eggs.

Honeymoon

About fifteen days after her birth, the queen awaits a beautiful and warm day to start her nuptial flight. It's not as romantic as it sounds though. The queen flies as far and high as possible - sometimes that can be as far as 20 km. Only the drones that can follow her are allowed to mate with her.

Did you know that a drone falls dead after the act? After mating, their sexual organs break down and they die. The drones that do not mate with the queen are expelled from the colony by the workers.

It seems to be a very special bee, that queen bee. She sure is, but it are the worker bees who really are in charge of the bee colony. When the queen falls out of favor with the worker bees because she no longer lays enough eggs, she is inexorably replaced by a younger one.