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The primary function of a queen bee is to serve as the reproducer. A well-mated and well-fed queen of quality stock can lay about 1,500 eggs per day during the spring build-up—more than her own body weight in eggs every day. She is continuously surrounded by worker bees who meet her every need, giving her food and disposing of her waste.
The queen tends to lay brood in a circular or oval pattern. At the height of the brood laying season, the queen may lay so many eggs per day, that the brood on a particular frame may be virtually of the same age. As the egg hatches, worker bees add royal jelly - a secretion from glands on the heads of young bees. For three days the young larvae ...
Queens generally begin to slow egg-laying in the early fall, and may stop during the winter. Egg-laying generally resumes in late winter when the days lengthen, peaking in the spring. At the height of the season, the queen may lay over 2,500 eggs per day (more than her body mass).
The queen takes one or several nuptial flights to mate with drones from other colonies, which die after mating. After mating, the queen begins laying eggs. A fertile queen is able to lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs. Each unfertilized egg contains a unique combination of 50% of the queen's genes [1] and develops into a drone.
Brood comb. The brood comb is the beeswax structure of cells where the queen bee lays eggs. [1] It is the part of the beehive where a new brood is raised by the colony. During the summer season, a typical queen may lay 1500-2000 eggs per day, which results in 1500-2000 bees hatching after the three-week development period.
The sting of queens is not barbed like a worker's sting, and queens lack the glands that produce beeswax. Once mated, queens may lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. [88] They produce a variety of pheromones that regulate the behavior of workers, and help swarms track the queen's location during the swarming. [88]
Swarming (honey bee) Swarming is a honey bee colony's natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies. [1] Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period depending on the locale, but occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season.
Nuptial flight is an important phase in the reproduction of most ant, termite, and some bee species. [1] It is also observed in some fly species, such as Rhamphomyia longicauda. During the flight, virgin queens mate with males and then land to start a new colony, or, in the case of honey bees, continue the succession of an existing hived colony ...