Content
Bees are an organized species of creatures that live according to their own established laws and rules. Over millions of years of evolution, a social type of behavior was formed and individuals were divided by function. Each bee has a purpose and it does not matter at all whether it is a drone, a worker or a queen bee, thanks to which the bee community achieves normal functioning. The queen bee is the queen of the hive, who not only unites the entire family, but also continues the family line. The main task of the queen bee is to reproduce and keep the colony intact.
What does a queen bee look like?
A distinctive feature of the queen bee is its size. As a rule, the queen bee is several times larger in length and weight. The body length is 2-2.5 cm, and the weight varies from 18 to 33 g.
The queen's body is elongated, the abdomen is torpedo-shaped, which protrudes quite strongly beyond the wings. Unlike other insects, the queen bee has much smaller eyes and there are no differences in internal structure. The main difference between the queen bee is the developed ovaries.
The queen bee is slow, movement is difficult for her, as a result of which she does not leave the hive without the need to mate or swarming. There are always worker bees around the queen who care for and feed the mistress. If necessary, you can see what the queen bee looks like in the photo.
Fetal uterus
As a rule, a queen bee is a queen bee that has managed to mate with drones, after which she begins to lay fertilized eggs in large quantities. Working individuals are subsequently hatched from them.
The queen bee looks much larger compared to other insects. Thanks to it, the strength and power of the entire family is determined. As experienced beekeepers often note, the personality of a bee colony depends entirely on the queen bee, as a result of which they can be friendly or aggressive.
Barren uterus
An infertile queen is an individual who has not yet gone through the process of mating with drones, since she is still young, or she was unable to mate due to bad weather, as a result of which she remained infertile. In such cases, the queen bee lays exclusively infertile eggs, from which drones hatch.
After such an individual leaves the queen cell, it is still weakened for some time, and movement is slow due to the overcrowded intestine. After a few days, the bee gains strength and after another 4 days it goes on an approximate flight, and a week later it flies out to mate.
How to distinguish a fertile uterus from a barren uterus
It often happens that at the initial stages it is quite difficult to distinguish a fertile queen bee from an infertile one. After individuals are born, they have the same size and body structure, and are equally active. Only after 5 days do differences become visible, and the barren uterus begins to noticeably lag in growth.
The uterus is quite large; on the honeycomb it moves slowly, without sudden movements. It has a thick abdomen and is constantly located close to open brood - looking for free cells for laying eggs.
In turn, the barren uterus is very fussy and constantly on the move. It is small in size, has a thin abdomen, and constantly appears in different parts of the nest. If necessary, you can look at the size of the queen bees in the photo, which will allow you to understand the differences between the species.
How does a queen appear in bees?
The development of the main bee in the hive occurs in several stages:
- Day 1-2 – the egg is in the womb, after which it is laid in a specially prepared bowl;
- 3-7 days – the larva hatches and actively feeds on royal jelly;
- 8-12 days - the larva actively feeds and prepares to become a pupa;
- 13-16 days – pupal period;
- Day 17 – appearance of a barren uterus.
After 5 days, the queen begins her flight, which lasts for 7 days, after which the queen bee returns to the hive and begins to lay eggs.
Life cycle
If a bee family lives in natural conditions, then the queen bee lives like this for 8 years. The first few years of life, the queen bee is characterized by a high level of fertility - she can lay up to 2000 eggs per day; over time, reproductive capacity decreases.The supply of seed obtained during the fertilization process runs out, and the queen bee lays unfertilized eggs. Once a bee colony begins to sense that their queen is becoming a drone, she is replaced.
What functions does the queen bee perform?
The duties of the queen bee include maintaining the number of insects in the hive, in addition, she unites the swarm. The qualities of a queen can be determined by the number of eggs laid. If the queen bee is good, she will lay about 2000 eggs within 24 hours. After fertilization of the eggs, workers and other queens are born, and drones are born from unfertilized eggs.
As practice shows, the life expectancy of a hive queen is about 5 years; after a few years, reproductive capacity declines, queen bees lay fewer and fewer eggs, as a result of which beekeepers replace the queen after 2 years. Bees are able to recognize the queen bee by the pheromones that she secretes (they also determine death and loss).
Types of queens
Today there are 3 types of queens; if necessary, you can see what the queen bee looks like in the photo:
- fistulous – appears after the previous queen has been lost or died;
- swarming - appears at the moment when the bee family plans to leave the hive. Such individuals are considered the strongest and are capable of producing healthy offspring;
- quiet shift – the process of emergence is natural, such an individual comes to replace the old queen.
It is important to control the swarming queens, as sooner or later they will leave the hive as a whole family.
Fistula
The fistula queen is the queen bee that replaces the queen. If the queen bee dies, the swarm will know about her death within 30 minutes. In such situations, the bee colony begins to buzz quite loudly, work stops and the search for the queen begins. It is at this point that the bees are forced to breed a new queen if the old one has not been found.
The larvae begin to be actively fed with royal jelly (as a rule, in a normal situation, the larvae are given milk for several days, after which they are transferred to a mixture of honey and bee bread). After 20 days, about 20-25 new queens are born, which gradually begin to destroy each other. This is due to the fact that more than 1 queen cannot live in a hive.
Since such individuals develop in small cells, their quality is much lower. Some experienced beekeepers combine several cells together, giving the larva more space for development, but since such work is labor-intensive, this method is used extremely rarely.
Swarmers
During her life, the queen bee lays from 10 to 50 queen cells; as a rule, their number completely depends on the strength of the colony. The larvae that are born receive all the best - they are provided with the best food, carefully cared for, as a result of which it is possible to produce high-quality individuals. A distinctive feature of this type of queen is its tendency to swarm.If the necessary measures are not taken in a timely manner, the swarm leaves the apiary. This is why many beekeepers prefer to resort to queen isolation.
Quiet shift
The old queen of the hive lays an egg in a separate bowl, meanwhile the life of the family goes on as before. After 16 days, a new queen bee hatches from the egg and kills the old queen.
The birth of a silent shift uterus is carried out in several cases:
- This situation was provoked personally by the beekeeper.
- The queen bee is too old.
- The queen bee is damaged and will die soon.
Queens obtained in this way are of the highest quality.
Hatching of the queen bee
There are several ways to breed a queen bee: natural, artificial. If the natural path is chosen, then the bees independently build a queen cell, where they subsequently lay eggs. In order for the emerging queens to have a well-developed reproductive ability, they are intensively fed using royal jelly.
With the artificial method you will need:
- Remove the queen bee and exposed brood from the hive, leaving only the eggs and larvae behind.
- In order for new individuals to acquire excellent reproductive abilities, the honeycombs are cut from below.
- The queen cell is cut out, placed in the hive, and then the queen is returned.
Flyby of queens
After the queen of the hive has reached puberty, she goes to perform the mating ritual. Often, the queen bee does not leave the apiary during her flight. After 7 days, the queen flies around to mate.If mating for some reason does not occur within a week, the queen remains infertile.
The drone that managed to catch up with the queen participates in mating; the whole process takes place in the air, in warm weather. If fertilization is successful, the bee rips out the drone's genitals and returns to the hive with them to prove that the mating was successful.
Conclusion
The queen bee is the queen of the bee colony, whose responsibilities include laying eggs and maintaining life in the hive. The queen bee is looked after by the entire hive, cared for, fed and protected. Only one queen can live in a bee colony; if a second one appears, they will fight until one is left alive.
