Unveiling the Buzz: How Bees Choose Their Queen

Posted on May 16, 2023

Jalwa Hanis

Hey there!

Have you ever wondered about the big, buzzing world of bees? It’s actually way more interesting than you might think!

Today, let’s delve into the royal drama of how bees choose their queen.

The Bee Basics

There are tens of thousands of bees in a bee hive but only one queen. Talk about a tough crowd!

Most bees in a hive are female workers who do… well, pretty much everything. They’re the housekeepers, the builders, the food collectors.

These hard-working gals have a lifespan that ranges from six weeks in the summer to nine months in the winter. Talk about burning out from overwork!

Then, there are the male bees or drones. Their job? Wait around to mate with the queen. After that, it’s either the end of the line for them, or they get kicked out of the hive when not needed. Talk about harsh!

And finally, there’s the queen bee. She can live up to five years, laying up to 2,000 eggs daily. And her secret to this regal life? A special goo called royal jelly!

The Queen Bee's Secret Sauce: Royal Jelly

Now, here’s where things get really interesting. When a queen bee dies or leaves the hive, the bees must pick a new queen fast! So how do they do it? It all starts with the royal jelly.

Worker bees produce royal jelly from a gland in their heads and feed it to newly hatched larvae. This jelly is like a bee superfood. It’s packed with protein, vitamins, sugars, minerals, and even a neurotransmitter found in humans that helps with learning and muscle movement.

So, all the baby bees start off eating this superfood. But after three days, only a select few continue getting this royal treatment. The rest switch to a regular diet of honey, pollen, and water.

How Bees Choose Their Queen: The Royal Rumble

As the chosen larvae feast on royal jelly, they start to change. They begin to grow parts worker bees don’t have, like the ovaries needed for laying eggs.

Here’s where it gets a little Game of Thrones-y.

If one future queen hatches first, she goes around the hive, hunting down the other potential queens and taking them out before they even leave their wax cells.

If multiple queens hatch at the same time, they duke it out until only one queen is left standing.

The Queen Bee Mystery

For a long time, we thought the worker bees just randomly picked which larvae to feed royal jelly. After all, worker bees and queen bees are pretty much identical genetically. But some recent studies suggest that a tiny difference might play a huge role.

We’re still trying to figure out precisely what makes royal jelly unique. It could be a particular hormone in the jelly or a protein called ROYALACTIN. Whatever it is, it can turn a regular bee larva into a queen bee.

Once they become queens, these lucky bees enjoy a royal jelly diet for the rest of their lives. And considering they live much longer than their worker bee sisters, that seems like a pretty sweet deal!

So there you have it! The buzz on how bees choose their queen. It’s a world full of hard work, royal jelly, and bee-sized battles for the throne. Who knew bees could be so dramatic?

And remember, we may not be bees, but just like them, we’re all a part of this crazy, beautiful world. So let’s do our part to keep learning and keep buzzing!

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