How Do Bees Decide Their Queen?
Bees are highly social creatures that thrive in structured, cooperative communities called colonies. In each colony, the queen bee holds a vital role as the sole fertile female responsible for laying all the eggs, ensuring the colony’s continuity and genetic diversity. However, queens do not rule by authority but by function, serving as the mother and reproducer of the hive. Given her central role, the process of selecting a queen is crucial for the survival and stability of the colony.
So how do bees choose their queen? The answer involves a fascinating combination of biological cues, social dynamics, and sophisticated hive communication. Queen selection can occur in two primary ways: swarming, where a new colony is formed, or supersedure, when the existing queen is replaced due to age or poor health. Through intricate communication, special diets, and chemical signaling, honeybees demonstrate a complex and coordinated process of creating and selecting a new queen.
In this detailed exploration, we’ll uncover how worker bees initiate queen production, the roles of royal jelly and queen cells, the survival challenge faced by potential queens, and how a final queen is chosen to lead the colony.
Understanding the Role of the Queen Bee in the Colony
The queen bee’s primary role is reproduction. As the only fertile female in the colony, she is responsible for laying all the eggs that develop into worker bees, drones (males), and potential future queens. A healthy, productive queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day during peak seasons, ensuring the hive remains populated and functional.
However, a queen bee also releases pheromones, which are chemical signals that help maintain the social order within the colony. These pheromones prevent worker bees from developing ovaries and laying eggs, allowing the colony to focus on foraging, defending, and caring for the young. When the queen becomes unproductive, sick, or old, her pheromone output decreases, and the colony senses the need to replace her to maintain stability.
Reasons for Choosing a New Queen
The colony may initiate the process of raising a new queen under several circumstances:
- Swarming: Swarming occurs when the colony has grown too large, and a group of bees, including the old queen, leaves to start a new colony. This process requires the remaining bees to produce a new queen to continue the lineage in the original hive.
- Supersedure: Supersedure is the replacement of an aging or failing queen within the same hive. When a queen’s health declines or she becomes less productive, the worker bees will begin raising a replacement queen.
- Emergency Response: If the queen dies unexpectedly or is removed, the colony must quickly raise a new queen to prevent the colony from becoming unsustainable.
In all these situations, the process begins with the selection of larvae that have the potential to develop into a new queen. The development of these larvae is guided by specialized feeding and nurturing, overseen by worker bees.
The Role of Queen Cells and Royal Jelly
The development of a queen bee requires several key components: queen cells, royal jelly, and unique nurturing behaviors from the worker bees. When the colony decides to produce a new queen, they initiate this process by creating queen cells and feeding the larvae royal jelly, a high-nutrient secretion that plays a crucial role in queen differentiation.
1. Queen Cells
Queen cells are specialized, larger-than-normal cells built by worker bees within the hive. Unlike typical worker cells, which are hexagonal and flat, queen cells are elongated and hang vertically, resembling a peanut shape. This distinct structure accommodates the growth of a queen larva, which requires more space than worker or drone cells.
The number of queen cells varies based on the situation. During swarming, the colony may produce numerous queen cells to increase the likelihood of a strong queen emerging. In cases of supersedure or emergency response, the colony may produce only a few queen cells.
2. Royal Jelly and Its Impact on Development
Royal jelly is a nutrient-rich secretion produced by nurse bees—young worker bees who care for the brood. All bee larvae are initially fed royal jelly, but only those destined to become queens receive it exclusively for their entire developmental period. Royal jelly contains high levels of proteins, vitamins, and hormones that trigger the genetic expression necessary for queen development.
When larvae are continuously fed royal jelly, they undergo physiological changes that enable them to develop fully functional ovaries, longer lifespans, and other queen-specific traits. In contrast, worker bees are weaned onto a diet of pollen and honey after a few days, causing them to develop into sterile females.
The feeding of royal jelly essentially “reprograms” the chosen larvae, initiating the process that transforms them from a worker bee into a reproductive queen.
The Queen Selection Process: Rivalry and Survival of the Fittest
Once the queen larvae have been selected and placed in their queen cells, they continue to grow and develop, eventually reaching a point where they are ready to emerge as young queens. This is where one of the most fascinating and ruthless parts of the selection process begins—queen rivalry.
1. Emergence of Rival Queens
Each queen cell produces a single potential queen. When one of these queens reaches maturity, she will chew her way out of the queen cell, emerging as a fully formed, albeit inexperienced, queen. However, if multiple queen cells are present, the first queen to emerge faces an immediate challenge: eliminating her rivals.
2. The Challenge of Queen Elimination
In most cases, the first queen to emerge will seek out and eliminate other developing queens by stinging them through their sealed cells. This behavior, known as queen elimination, ensures that only one queen survives. If multiple queens emerge simultaneously, they may engage in duels, where they use their stingers in combat until only one survives. These battles continue until there is only one surviving queen, who then takes her place as the colony’s leader.
The elimination process is essential for maintaining order in the hive. A single queen is necessary to prevent division within the colony, as having multiple queens could create competition for resources and worker loyalty, destabilizing the colony.
The Role of Worker Bees in Queen Selection
While the queen elimination process may seem like a solo affair, worker bees play a critical role in guiding and supporting the selection process.
1. Supporting Emerging Queens
When a colony produces multiple queen cells, worker bees do not intervene directly in the elimination process, but they play a supportive role by providing food and care to the developing queens. Additionally, if an existing queen’s pheromones are still strong, workers may hesitate to initiate queen production until her pheromones decline.
2. Managing the Swarm
During swarming, worker bees work with the old queen to prepare her for departure, while simultaneously raising a new queen to take her place. They tend to both queens during this time, balancing their roles to ensure that the colony remains stable through the transition.
3. Emergency Situations and Rapid Response
In the event of an unexpected queen death, worker bees respond quickly to select larvae and raise an emergency queen. In such cases, workers must choose larvae younger than three days old, as only very young larvae can develop into a queen. The worker bees then feed these larvae royal jelly, accelerating the development process to ensure the colony remains viable.
The Final Selection: The Reign of the New Queen
Once a new queen has emerged victorious over her rivals, she begins her journey as the colony’s primary reproductive leader. However, there are still important steps to solidify her role.
1. Mating Flight
Before she can begin laying fertilized eggs, the new queen embarks on a mating flight. She leaves the hive and flies to a designated area known as a drone congregation area, where she will mate with multiple male bees (drones) from other colonies. This mating process provides her with enough sperm to fertilize eggs for the remainder of her life, which can last anywhere from two to five years.
2. Returning to the Colony and Establishing Authority
Once the queen has completed her mating flight, she returns to the hive and begins laying eggs. She releases pheromones that communicate her presence and signal to the worker bees that the colony has an active, fertile queen. These pheromones help maintain order, suppress the reproductive instincts of worker bees, and strengthen the colony’s cohesion.
3. Sustaining the Colony
The new queen now begins her role as the central figure in the hive, continuously laying eggs to replenish the worker and drone populations. Her pheromones ensure the stability of the hive and prevent the need for new queens until her productivity or health declines.
The Evolutionary Advantages of Queen Selection and Replacement
The methodical and organized process by which bees choose their queen has clear evolutionary advantages. The survival and productivity of the colony depend on having a single, robust queen capable of high egg production. By fostering healthy competition among potential queens and selectively feeding royal jelly to ensure proper development, bees increase the likelihood of producing a strong, genetically diverse colony.
Queen selection and replacement processes also allow colonies to adapt to environmental changes and pressures, as worker bees can initiate a new queen-raising cycle whenever necessary. This adaptability is essential for colony resilience and survival across diverse habitats.
Conclusion
The process by which bees choose their queen is a fascinating display of social organization, biological specialization, and survival instinct. From the production of royal jelly and creation of queen cells to the elimination of rivals and the final mating flight, each stage is carefully orchestrated to ensure that the best possible queen emerges to lead the colony.
The emergence of a new queen is not a matter of hierarchy but rather a response to the colony’s reproductive needs. Through evolutionary refinement, bees have developed a system that balances individual competition with communal survival, ensuring that each colony has the strongest, healthiest queen to sustain its lineage.
