Most of us are terrified of the bees because of how painful their stings are. However, one cannot deny that these are extremely interesting bugs with lots of fascinating features. We all know that the queen bee is the most important colony. While other bees work hard to create honey, all the Queen does is lay eggs.
The name “Queen Bee” may imply that they are the leader and live a royal life; the reality is actually something else. Let us get to know some fascinating facts about the queen bee. Meanwhile, if you have a bee problem at your house and your family is constantly in fear of getting stung, call professional pest control in the Boise area.
Fascinating facts about the queen bee
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The Queen has had a special diet since her birth.
The queen bee is born the same way as other bees are, from the current Queen. However, the food that she receives is different. The queen bee is fed a royal jelly, which is a secretion from the hands of the workers, which enables her to be the only one in the clan to reproduce. While other larvae also receive royal jelly, the Queen is the only adult bee to receive it.
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The Queen is not really the Queen.
Although humans have named her the Queen bee because of her nature to not work as the other bees, her life is far from being royal. Unlike a queen, she does not give orders to the clan or is the ruler of it. Instead, she is the mother of all as she lays eggs to create a colony.
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The Queen lays up to 2,000 eggs every day.
The number may astonish you, but it is true. We were not lying when we said the Queen only lays eggs. The job of a Queen bee is to reproduce all her life and expand the colony, nothing else. A bee egg is about the size of half a grain of rice, measuring 1-1.5mm.
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The worker bees clean after the Queen.
Since the Queen is responsible for laying eggs all day, she barely has time to do anything else. Therefore, she takes help from the worker bees or her “attendants” to feed and clean her.
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The Queen mates once in her life.
You may think the Queen must mate quite regularly for her to lay eggs every single day. However, that is far from reality. Queen bees only mate once in their life for 1-2 days with as many drones as possible. There is an organ in her body where the sperm is collected, and she uses this to lay eggs for the rest of her life. Once she runs out of sperm, she is replaced by another Queen.
