Apiology: The Study of Bees - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 25

shaped laying pattern. A small, arc-shaped area of cells above the brood nest is filled
with pollen. Above the pollen, another arc reaches into the top two corners of the frame
and is filled with honey. Only one egg laid by an existing queen inside a queen cup will
develop into a queen bee. Queen cups are larger than the cells in which workers and
drones are reared and hang vertically from the brood nest. The beekeeper can identify
queen cups because they protrude, peanutlike from the brood nest.
BROOD NEST IN THE TYPICAL OVAL PATTERN
For the first three days of their lives as larvae, all female honeybees are fed a diet
of royal jelly, a protein secretion made from the hypopharyngeal glands located in the
heads of mature workers. However, during the remainder of the larval stage, and for
the rest of their lives, only potential queens are continually fed royal jelly, while female
workersandmaledronesbeginfeedingonpollenandnectar.Royaljellyiswhatenables
queen bees to develop into sexually mature females.
On the seventh day of the larval stage, the queen larva transforms into a pupa , and
at that time the worker bees will close the queen cell with a beeswax cap. The young
queen emerges approximately sixteen days later by chewing a circular cut in the wall
of her cell until the wall swings open like a door. A handful of worker bees become her
attendants and spend the rest of their short lives feeding and grooming her, cleaning up
her waste, and following her around the hive. The queen truly lives the life of royalty.