Apiology: The Study of Bees - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 27

touching the workers around her with their antennae and by fanning their wings. These
workers,inturn,touchthebeesnexttothemandsoon.Thequeenisthemostimportant
bee inside the hive, and each bee within the hive feels her influence. If a queen dis-
appears or leaves the hive, it does not take long before her pheromones fade and the
workers realize that their queen is missing.
LARVAE FLOATING IN ROYAL JELLY INSIDE THE BROOD NEST
During summer months, a queen lays an egg every twenty seconds, day and night,
with a break every twenty minutes. She might lay as many as two thousand eggs per
day—an amount that is approximately equal to her own weight. Healthy, productive
queenslayanegginalmosteverycellinthebroodnestandleavejustafewcellsempty
in between. This is considered a normal brood pattern. Eggs can be difficult for begin-
ning beekeepers to spot; they look like small pieces of rice standing straight upright,
andthereshouldbeonlyoneinsideeachcell.Inthelarvalstagetheeggslooklikeshiny
white worms curled into the shape of a “C” and floating in royal jelly. Once the cells
are capped, the larvae spin a silky cocoon and straighten out again, becoming pupae.
Cappings are the convex beeswax seals made by worker bees to cover or cap the cells.
Once the egg cells are capped, the larvae actually begin to look like bees.