How a queen bee is born

If you are wondering how a queen bee is born , what its duties are in the hive and you want to know more about its development, here is some useful information.

The queen bee is the focus of a swarm . It can be defined as the mother of all bees since it is from her that all new individuals come to life. But how does a queen bee develop and how long does her task last? 

How to become a queen bee

In reality, you don't become a queen bee, you are born. There is no way to become a queen bee if you have already reached the adult stage of development, but the larvae selected for this role are treated differently already during spawning . The queen develops from a fertilized egg inserted into a royal cell . Let's explain better. When the bees have decided that it is time to replace their current queen (because it is old or inefficient) they immediately start building royal cells. The royal cell contains only one egg, from which a larva destined to become queen bee will be born.

Real cells are very different from other hexagonal shaped cells. They have the shape of a dome and are suitable for hosting the growth of a larger bee. The royal larva grows differently from other bees thanks to the exclusive nourishment of royal jelly which it receives throughout its life. The other larvae, on the other hand, receive royal jelly only for the first three days and then are normally fed with honey and nectar.

When does a bee egg hatch?

A bee egg hatches after three days. After this period of time there is a larva inside the cell of smaller size than the egg itself. The larva will reach adulthood after different mutations. For this reason, after a few days from nourishment, the cells are entirely covered and closed by the wax. In this way, the larva can complete its metamorphosis .

A bee will be born on the 21st day after laying the egg from the cell. Once the wax cover is broken, also helped by the other bees, it will come out small, hairy and off-white.

In the case of a queen bee, the larva will be fully developed after 15 days. The birth of the queen bee is a long-awaited moment in the hive, it is possible to notice the bees agitated by the euphoria of the event. When the bees replace their old queen, the latter will permanently leave the swarm to make way for the new queen. Since queens cannot survive on their own, she will be entitled to a small share of escorts. A group of the swarm will go away with her to settle elsewhere until the end of their days. This mechanism is called swarming .

Why the mother of bees is important

The queen bee's only task is to lay eggs. The queen is the only one able to be fertile, which is why she is so important to the colony that she would otherwise not be able to reproduce. The queen bee can be defined as the mother of all bees since it is from her that all eggs are produced. Her life cycle is significantly longer than that of other individuals.

The queen bee lives a long time considering that bees have a lifespan of about 45 days. The queen, thanks to the royal jelly she eats, comes to live in a period of 3 to 4 years. During her existence, the bee will never leave the hive except during the mating phase which will take place only once with all the drones in the hive. The mating phase is defined as “ nuptial flight ”.

Recognizing the age of a queen bee

Recognizing the age of a queen bee is very useful for beekeepers to understand how the work of bees is progressing and also to predict possible and future swarms in which the regina has reached the maximum of its operations and is about to be replaced. A young queen bee is generally smaller, with hair on the chest, has intact wings and lays in a compact manner. As for an old queen, the exact opposite happens.

To make this evaluation more accurate, however, the beekeeper proceeds with the marking. This is a very useful procedure in which the beekeeper places a small amount of paint on the queen's chest. This not only allows you to more easily identify the sovereign bee among the workers, but also to easily evaluate its age. Why? Well, because every year it involves marking with a different and standardized color according to a five-year color. This means that the color of the marking allows you to understand which year the queen belongs to.

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