Bees are very important to our ecosystem. Without them, we wouldn’t survive long. They pollinate 90% of the plants that produce the world’s produce. During your grade school years, they most likely taught you how essential bees are. But did they go into detail about the beehive, specifically the queen bee? How much do you know about the queen bee and her role in the hive? Little Giant Beekeepers has 5 interesting facts about the queen bee to help you get a better understanding of the beehive in your backyard. And if the bees are getting out of control on your property, don’t hesitate to call our expert bee removers!
The Queen Bee Lays Up to 2,000 Eggs a Day
The queen bee is responsible for laying all of the eggs in the colony. She builds up the hive herself. If she produces about 2,000 eggs a day, that amounts to an egg every 43 seconds! Luckily, procreating is her sole purpose, so she has all the time she needs.
She Mates Only Once or Twice In Her Life
The queen only spends one to two days mating with as many drones as possible. She collects the sperm and stores it in an organ that she uses to lay eggs for the rest of her life. Once she runs out of genetic material, her time is up and she is replaced by her colony.
The Queen Must Kill Her Competition
When a colony needs a new queen, they make more than one of them. When the first queen hatches, she uses her stinger to kill the other unhatched bees. If two queens are born at the same time, they fight for the throne and the survivor gets crowned.
Any Fertilized Egg Can Take the Thrown
A queen bee produces fertilized eggs and unfertilized ones. The fertilized ones become worker bees or a queen, while the unfertilized ones become drones. The diet determines if a fertilized egg will become a queen. Queen larvae are fed special royal jelly, while worker larvae consume a diet of honey and pollen.
The Colony Can’t Survive Without the Queen
The queen bee is needed for the colony’s survival. The queen has two main purposes. To lay eggs and to produce chemical scents. These pheromones send signals to the rest of the colony. When the worker bees can no longer sense these pheromones, they know they are queenless and start creating queen cells to reproduce a new one.
Get In Touch With Little Giant Beekeepers
If you have noticed bees or wasps buzzing around your property, don’t hesitate to call our expert bee removers. We offer a variety of bee removal services including but not limited to:
- Bee control
- Live removals
- Full hive removal
- Bee proofing
- Africanized bee control
- Dallas yellow jacket removal
- Wasp removal in Dallas
- Protection against bumblebees and other stinging insects
We have been servicing the Dallas-Fort Worth area for over 40 years. Give us a call or send us a message and we will be on our way. Let’s relocate the queen bee and the rest of the hive to a new location far away from people and buildings.
