Characteristics of queen bees: how to recognize them?

Could you distinguish a queen bee from the rest of the swarm? Here's what you need to observe

If you are a novice beekeeper or simply if you have a passion for the world of bees, here you will find lots of curiosities and useful information about queen bees. Distinguishing a queen bee from the rest of the swarm is not difficult as it is sufficient to observe some specific characteristics to easily identify it.

During their work, beekeepers necessarily need to know where the queen bee is, to know its state of health and its productivity. Queen bees are key elements in every hive and are therefore constantly monitored.

Queen bees are responsible for ensuring the turnover of bees in a colony and are the only ones that can reproduce. A swarm without queen bee would face certain death.

Usually beekeepers proceed with the marking the queen bee, applying a small drop of paint of specific colors. Each color indicates the year the queen bee belongs to and is a useful process in order to know the age of a bee.

The queen is the only bee that is marked. After marking, of course, distinguishing the queen bee becomes easier but you should know what its physical characteristics are and how to recognize it even before marking.

Physical characteristics of a queen bee

Queen bees have well-defined physical characteristics. Compared to worker bees, the body of a queen bee is much longer and tapered. This is a feature that allows us to easily locate the queen.

But be careful, even the drones are larger than the workers. The queen bee has a larger abdomen than the workers but also has different characteristics regarding the wings. Although queen bees have more developed and powerful bodies, their ability to fly is considerably reduced compared to the flight performance of a worker.

The queen bee can live up to 5 years, while the worker bees live on average 60 days or more, depending on the amount of food they receive, the period in which they are born and the work they do in the hive.

Difference between queen bees and worker bees

The queen bee is the only fertile bee in a colony while the worker bees are sterile female bees. In fact, the main difference between queen bees and worker bees is precisely this.

The queen bee develops a very efficient reproductive system that will serve it to produce fertilized eggs throughout the rest of its life. The royal bee is the only one that mates with the drones during the mating flight and is the only one that can lay fertilized eggs.

The worker bees, on the other hand, take care of other tasks and perform all the tasks necessary to meet the needs of the colony.

Queen bees have a smooth and straight sting that is used as an ovipositor and therefore for the insertion of eggs in the hexagonal cells. The sting of the other females, on the other hand, has a completely different purpose as it is curved and serrated and acts as a defense weapon against intruders or predators.

The worker bees take care of everything, paying particular attention to their queen bee a bit as if they were handmaids. The worker bees feed the queen bee with royal jelly, take care of maintaining a stable temperature and provide for any need for her. 

Recognizing a queen bee by its behavior

It is possible to easily identify a queen bee also through some attitudes and behaviors and not only through physical characteristics. If we look at a colony we can see that most bees never stand still.

Workers are always very busy and hectic. The queen bee, on the other hand, is the individual who tends to stand still. If we happen to see a bee stationary among the others in motion, it should be the queen.

Another way to spot it is to observe the behavior of other bees. When the queen bee moves, the workers always tend to make room for it and move around to avoid hitting or bothering it.

The queen bee greatly controls the behavior of the rest of the swarm through the production of pheromones (olfactory hormones).

Appearance and role of drones

Drones are the male bees of a colony. Their task is very limited as the males do not perform particular tasks inside the hive but only deal with the reproductive phase by mating with the queen during the nuptial flight and.

Drones are easily recognizable mainly by the shape of their body and eyes. The final part of the body of the drones ends in a sharper and less pointed way. This is because drones, unlike females, do not have a stinger.

As for their general appearance, drones are larger than workers and have more prominent and larger eyes placed close together on their heads.

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