Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the species, she doesn't rule. She doesn't control. The colony appears to be controlled by
what has been called 'the anonymous consensus of the colony's workers'. These recent
findings could well be of importance to our understanding of the dynamics of all social
animals, including ourselves.
Preparing for the birth
When the colony requires a new queen - if, for example, the old one dies or becomes
old and ineffective in her laying, or for other reasons that will become clear later on in
the topic - the workers begin to construct queen cups, which are cells on the surface of
the comb but facing vertically downwards. If they proceed with the plan, the queen lays
fertilized eggs into the cups (the same as worker eggs), and the creation of a new queen
begins. After 16 days, a queen bee emerges from her very distinctive cell.
If allowed to by the worker bees, the new queen kills off potential rival queens still in
sealed cells by stinging them through the cell wall, and then she fights any other virgin
queens in the hive that have emerged - again, if allowed to by the workers. Worker bees
occasionally keep another virgin in readiness in case the first fails to mate, and they will
protect this virgin until they have a mated queen.
Queen bee development
The difference between a worker bee and a queen is due solely to the quality and
quantity of the food fed to the larvae. The queen larvae receive a much larger percentage
of royal jelly over a longer period than do worker larvae. Royal jelly contains a much
higher proportion of worker mandibular gland secretions, and the difference is very
marked. Royal jelly has up to 10 times more pantothenic acid and 18 times more
biopterin than food fed to worker larvae, but quantity is also important, and queen
larvae must consume far more food than workers.
For the first two or three days of larval development, the respiratory and growth rates
of queens and workers are similar. The queen rates accelerate, however, during the last
few days so, although the development of workers and queens is based on nutrition,
