. QUEENS

about . . . Queens


There is one queen bee per hive - she is the mom of all the other bees. She is the only fertile member of the colony, and lays about 1,500 eggs a day during spring and summer.

Queen bees are distinguished from the other members of the hive by their long abdomens and small wings. Soon after birth, queen bees will go out and have a wild weeked, where they mate with 15 or more drones over a three day period before retiring to the hive to lay eggs. The queen will not leave the hive again unless the colony swarms (looking for a new home).

When the colony needs a new queen bee, they simply choose a healthy larva, hatched from an egg of the current queen, and feed it Royal Jelly, a special, super-nutrious food. Royal Jelly, produced in the heads of young nurse bees (worker bees whose job it is to care for the eggs), helps this larva grow into a queen. Queens can lay about 1,500 eggs per day and can live from 4 to 7 years, that's up to 57 times longer than a worker bee - it's no wonder humans love adding Royal Jelly to their diets, too!