The development cycle of the Queen Bee

The development cycle of the queen bee is a fascinating process, divided into specific stages. The birth of a new queen thrills the entire hive but also the beekeepers. In fact, when it happens, the bees are very agitated, euphoric and await their new sovereign with vehemence. In this article we will analyze its growth stages from the deposition of a fertilized egg to the adult stage.

Queen bee the indispensable element of the hive

The Queen Bee is the hub of life for the entire hive . In fact, the survival functioning of a swarm revolves around her life. Being the only one able to lay eggs , all the bees in a hive are daughters of the same queen. The mother of bees therefore plays an irreplaceable role, but how long does it take for a queen to be born ? It develops from a fertilized egg placed inside a particular elongated cell called the royal cell. Initially, the royal cell has the shape of a cup oriented downwards which in this stage is called the dome.

Egg, Larva, Pupa: these are the development stages

First of all, from which everything originates, the current sovereign bee of a hive is responsible for laying thousands of eggs a day inside the cells. The spawning will give birth to many new individuals including a new queen bee. Unlike the others, the egg that will develop a new ruler is inserted inside the real cell which has a different shape and a larger size than the others. Here are the main development stages:

• First phase: the egg laid inside the dome hatches after 3 days. From this a smaller larva than the egg itself is born which is then immersed in a drop of royal jelly.
• Second phase: the larva grows undergoing 5 different mutations and always and exclusively feeding on royal jelly. This growth process takes about 5 and a half days. After that, the workers provide the capping of the cell and reinforce the walls with wax ridges that will remain until the bee is born.
• Third phase: arrived here, the larva weaves a silk cocoon and undergoes a final moult. In this stage the queen is in the form of a pupa .
• Last phase: at this point, about 7 days after the previous phase, the queen has reached the state of an adult insect and is born.

How soon is a new queen bee born?

On average, a new queen bee can develop within 15 and 17 days from egg laying. The new baby will replace the old queen bee who will definitely leave the swarm together with a group of bees loyal to her who will follow to support her in her new life outside the hive.

Nutrition of larvae and real cells

The larvae that will develop as queen bees are fed in a completely different way from all the others. For the first three days the nurse bees provide royal jelly to all the larvae without distinction. After the third day, however, royal jelly becomes a valuable food, intended only for the larvae present in the royal cells.

Royal jelly allows a greater development of the bee than in the case of the queen, it changes into a body larger than the workers and with a different reproductive system capable of laying eggs. The nurse bees work hard to develop a strong and healthy new queen. Each real larva receives a total of 1200 to 1600 nutrients for a total of 17 hours of work.

Virgin queen bees

When a queen reaches adulthood, the hive is equipped with a virgin queen bee . In the event that multiple queens have developed at the same time, they will duel in a death match in which the strongest of her will stab her rival with her sting, killing her. In fact, in each hive there is room for only one queen. The sovereign will take care of laying eggs throughout her life for the creation of new individuals that strengthen and make the swarm survive. To do this it will need to mate. After mating with the drones, in fact, the virgin queen bee will become fertile and she will have the ability to lay an innumerable amount of eggs for the rest of her life.

Mating and spawning

The queen mating occurs with all the drones in the hives. In order to lay eggs, the queen needs to store a huge amount of semen inside her body. For this reason, the bee mates only once during its entire life and does so with many drones. This process takes place during the nuptial flight . After this step, all the drones that have mated with the queen will lose their lives and the queen will return to the hive, inside which the workers will take care of checking that fertilization has taken place. An underproductive queen would be immediately replaced by the swarm.

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