The basis of a bee family is the queen bee. She is busy only with laying eggs, and around her there is a large retinue that is busy feeding her. The strength of the family depends on the productivity of the “queen”, since the speed of sowing directly affects the number of working individuals. And, therefore, the productivity of any breed of bees is directly proportional to the efficiency of the queen.
Characteristics and description
The queen bee is the real queen of the hive , because one of the key functions falls on her shoulders - reproduction . In the absence of special fertilized eggs, from which queen bees emerge, the swarm will inevitably die. The new queen emerges from an egg that was seeded by her predecessor. It is placed in a special bowl attached to the honeycomb. Further, when the larva appears, it is fed generously with bee milk, which contains nutrients and beneficial substances. Soon the larva becomes a pupa.
What does a queen bee look like?
On a note ! The queen cell is removed from the bowl , but food for the queen bee is first placed in it - the milk itself. During this time, the bowl is rebuilt by worker bees into a queen cell. On the 16th day, the queen appears - after gnawing the queen cell, she emerges as a full-fledged queen of the hive.
What does a queen bee look like?
It is not difficult to distinguish a queen bee from worker bees; this can be done by size and shape. Its elongated body can reach sizes of 20-25 mm, and its belly , unlike ordinary individuals, extends beyond the wings. There is also a sting , however this is used for defense against other queens.
Smaller eyes. Weight is 0.025 g (or 0.02 g if the queen is infertile), although much depends on breed and age. We also note that queen bees can be:
- fruit-bearing (sown by worker bees);
- barren (they sow with drones ).
Expert opinion
Ponomarev Sergey Stepanovich
Beekeeper with 30 years of experience, Candidate of Technical Sciences
She can use the sting that the queen has many times - it will not harm her in any way and will not lead to her death.
Close-up view of queen bee
Maturation of uterine eggs
Marking the queen bee
Queen mother of the bee family
How long does a worker bee live?
Although worker bees provide the most benefits, their life span is very short. Since such insects constantly work, their life cycle is shortened and thus they live less. The average bee lives from 28 to 180 days. In very rare cases, the age of the insect reached 1 year.
If the colony multiplies in summer, then such a bee lives for a maximum of a month. If the brood was produced in winter, then with proper feeding they can live up to 180 days.
In cold times, and especially in winter, bees must be constantly inspected. Insects cannot tolerate prolonged cold. If the beekeeper has tried and looked after the evidence all winter, then at the beginning of spring his evidence will be without much loss. In case of neglect, you can lose your entire family.
If a bee colony does not increase in size and does not produce offspring, it can survive for about 12 months.
When the bees are sealed for the winter, the bees eat their reserves of honey, beebread and pollen. During the winter, bees need to leave several frames of honey. Otherwise they won't survive. Many economists feed the colony with sugar in winter, thereby reducing the life of a bee by 30%.
Since the evidence is one living organism consisting of many insects, all kinds of diseases cannot be excluded. For example, a weak family is more susceptible to diseases such as viral paralysis, varroatosis, etc. Whereas strong bees will be able to survive until the next brood.
There are no lazy bees, so they all work equally well. Which is why the lifespan is also the same.
Main functions of the uterus
The queen is a key link in the functioning and existence of the hive. She is responsible for procreation, control over the bees, she not only unites them, but also calms them if they feel danger. In order to understand how important all this is, you need to know about the structure of society in the hive.
So, in a family there are male and female individuals, i.e. worker bees, drones, queen bees. Only the last one can continue the race, because the rest have an underdeveloped reproductive system. They are able to collect pollen , nectar , and build honeycombs , but cannot lay eggs. The queen, on the other hand, has a proboscis half as long, and her wax glands do not function, so she cannot do anything other than lay eggs. On average, one queen bee can lay 1,500 eggs per day.
Important ! Uterus are very slow, phlegmatic and calm. They rarely leave the hive, and then only to mate or during swarming .
How long does a drone bee live?
The lifespan of a drone depends on many factors. For example, when a drone fertilizes the queen, it dies. When a drone is born and 14 days have passed, it is already considered capable of mating.
Drones generally have a hard time living in a bee family. They can be destroyed by beekeepers as an unnecessary element of the bee colony. In the struggle for the womb, siblings can commit lynching. But the option of expulsion is also possible if winter supplies are not enough to feed the family.
If there is no queen in the evidence or it is not fertile, then the drones can survive up to 6 months.
When summer comes to an end, bees try to seal as much honey as possible for the winter. And after one of the flights, when there is less nectar, a revolution occurs and the drones are driven out. This phenomenon is called a “revolt of workers” or “serves right for the backyard workers.”
Drones live from May to September. The warmer the climate, the longer their lifespan and vice versa, the colder it is, the shorter the insects live.
Most beekeepers have the opinion that if drone brood is produced in May, they will be able to live until September. The maximum drone can live is 59 days, and not everyone can live that.
If the beekeeper plans to mate queens with drones, the brood of drones should be 40% larger. Since during puberty many die.
Classification of queen bees
Uteruses can be of different types. And if some appear naturally, then in order to breed, for example, a quiet-shift queen, the beekeeper must make some effort.
Fistula
Such queens appear only in emergency cases - for example, if the previous queen disappeared without leaving a successor, or died. The insects, quite quickly beginning to sense the loss, make every effort to find a new queen. Due to severe anxiety, a whistling and rumble rises in the hive. In order to quickly find a new queen, the bees begin to intensively feed all the larvae with a large amount of royal milk - often they are given it for only 2 days, and then transferred to a special mixture of beebread and honey . While it is given to the uterus for all 16 days.
Due to increased feeding, dozens of new queens appear - within 20-30. Having appeared, they immediately begin to kill each other with the help of stingers until only one remains - she will have to take the vacant place.
Important ! The main disadvantage of fistulous (also called rescue) queens is their low egg production , which is why they are often replaced by swarming queens or quiet shift queens. This is explained by the fact that their development occurs in close cells (about 5 mm, while ordinary queens develop in a queen cell measuring 10 mm).
Swarmers
They are removed when the hive becomes too large and there is a need to form a new swarm . There are a number of signs by which one can determine the imminent appearance of swarming queen bees - for example, the colony is not raising larvae or not building new honeycombs. Typically, a swarm queen cell contains several cells with new queens, and therefore there can also be several swarms. After the appearance of the queen and their queen cell, the swarm leaves the colony, even if it is infertile .
A bee colony without a queen is doomed to death
The queen secretes pheromones to be recognized by bees
The queen bee is the basis of the bee family
The queen mother is slow and always surrounded by her retinue
Quiet shift
These are the most persistent, strong and best queens. They may appear if:
- the old uterus is very old or sick;
- the beekeeper provided the conditions necessary for its appearance.
First, the queen independently and quietly lays an egg in a cell specially designated for this purpose. She then continues her normal life and waits for the new queen to appear - usually this happens after 16 days. The young successor immediately kills the old queen bee and takes her place. Such queen bees are considered to be of the highest quality; they are capable of creating a very strong swarm.
Video – About the queens of the quiet shift
Popular breeds
Among the many available bee breeds, the most popular among beekeepers are:
Central Russian
It is the most common in Russia and the CIS countries. Insects of this breed are undemanding to care, easily tolerate frosts (can stay in the winter hut for up to 7 months), rarely get sick, are not prone to swarming, and are hard-working and highly productive. The only drawback is that bees collect only one type of honey, which is why they are delayed when switching to new honey plants.
Ukrainian steppe
In terms of hard work, they are comparable to Central Russian bees and have a peaceful character. Therefore, the breed is also very popular.
Carpathian
The breed got its name due to the fact that it mainly lives in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians. Bees are unpretentious, survive harsh winters without problems, and are able to collect honey in rainy weather. Honey is low in sugar. Eggs are laid not only in spring and summer, but also in autumn. Therefore, during wintering the family turns out to be numerous and requires a lot of food.
Gray mountain Caucasian
Particularly common in the northern Caucasus and in the foothills. Bees leave their hives early and return late. Neither drizzling rain nor fog stops them. They are characterized by the longest tongue, which allows them to obtain nectar from flowers that are inaccessible to other breeds. Winter hardiness is not very high, which is why they are suitable only for the southern regions.
Buckfast
A characteristic feature of the breed is its very high productivity and ability to fly long distances. If the apiary is located far from the honey collection, then Buckfast will be the ideal choice. But due to the fact that insects are afraid of frost, they are suitable only for residents of Ukraine and more southern regions
Buckfast bees.
Krainskaya, or karnika
It is especially popular in European countries. It is distinguished by its increased peacefulness, resistance to frost and heat, and weak swarming. Capable of quickly collecting honey during the short alpine spring. Insects begin to fly out very early, which makes it possible to collect bribes from the first honey plants. Thanks to their long proboscis, they are able to pollinate red clover.
Nuances of queen bee development
Among the many features of the development of the uterus, it is worth highlighting the following:
- it can only appear from fertilized eggs;
- after emergence, the young queen first of all makes her first mating (after fertilization by a drone, she will be ready to lay eggs from worker bees);
- in the absence of fertilized eggs, the entire swarm dies because it cannot hatch the uterus;
- if the uterus is fistulous/swarmy, then after its appearance it also fights with competitors;
- only a fertile individual is capable of laying a fertilized egg;
- the most important period in the development of the future queen is from 7 to 16 days, when active growth and formation of the reproductive system occurs;
- despite the fact that the queen lays the egg, caring for it falls on the shoulders of ordinary bees;
- During the first few days after emergence, the queen is infertile, meaning she is unable to lay eggs .
Hatching and mating
After emerging from the egg, the queen bee can mate on the seventh day of life. To do this, she carries out her first flights (as already noted above), during which she is fertilized by drones . If the queen fails to mate after a month of flying, she becomes a tinder .
Note ! All queen bees can be fertile (lay eggs of worker bees) or bees (lay eggs of drones). Both types of eggs are extremely important for the life of the swarm.
If the conditions are good and there is enough food, then the queen lays from 1500 to 2000 eggs per day ( the egg laying will weigh about the same as the queen herself). During the season, about 150,000 are produced. Typically, during laying, the queen bee conducts a thorough examination of each cell and if any defects are found there (pollution, for example, or unevenness), then she will not lay an egg there, but will move to the next cell.
Table. Queen bee hatching schedule.
| Lifetime | What's happening |
| 7th day | Sealing the queen cell |
| 16th day | A barren individual appears |
| After 3-5 days in the hive | First flyby |
| After 7 days in the hive | Nuptial flight |
| After 2 weeks in the hive | It becomes possible to determine the quality of the queen. |
How long do bees live without food?
The lifespan of bees directly depends on the ambient temperature and the period of their birth.
That is, the temperature at which insects feel comfortable is 16.5 C. In turn, 36 C leads to poor flight patterns and a short lifespan of insects.
The period of hatching from the cell is also an important factor in the length of a bee's stay. So the March brood can live up to 35 days, and the July brood up to a month. When honey collection is actively occurring, the bee lives at this rate for up to 25 days. And the brood can live the longest if it is hatched between September and October, up to 100 days.
Due to the unique structure of the large intestine in the rear part of the insect, nutritious sugars accumulate. The folded shape of the intestine allows it to accumulate more food so that it will last until it flies around in the spring.
If the bee is sufficiently saturated, it can go without food for 20 to 135 hours. But this does not apply to bees, which are considered honey bees and work in the summer. Their fasting period is quite short, only up to 17 hours. However, young individuals can last up to 115 hours.
Rules for replacing the queen bee
Usually the uterus is replaced every two to three years (its lifespan is 5 years). The main reasons for replacement include aging and poor-quality sowing (a small number of eggs in the cells). If the hive is multi-body , then the queen is changed once a year, since only the strong and young are able to lay the largest number of eggs per day.
Replacing a queen bee is quite a difficult task, because the family may simply not accept someone else’s. Before planting another queen, the beekeeper must provide special conditions and select the right moment for this. For example, remove the old one and leave the colony without a queen for a while (for a maximum of a few hours, otherwise the production of fistulous queen bees will begin). And then you can introduce a new queen from another family.
How long does a bee live after stinging a person?
A bee is an insect just like a mosquito. Therefore, in the presence of an irritant, it can bite and not just leave a pleasant memory. The main thing is to remove the sting left by the insect in time.
If you look at such a bite from the point of view of benefits, then this is a kind of useful therapy. When a bee bites you, it loses its sting and injects a certain dose of poison into the bitten area. A snake operates on a similar principle. Bee venom begins to act much faster due to the large number of auxiliary enzymes.
About two-queen maintenance of a bee colony
Let us immediately make a reservation that two-uterus housing is a controversial issue, since in nature there is only one queen in a family. If a second one appears, the strong individual will inevitably kill the weak one. But sometimes beekeepers manage to ensure that a colony contains 2 queens, due to which the size of the family doubles or triples. And this, in turn, allows you to pump more honey into the main honey collection (up to 40 kg per family every week).
Expert opinion
Ponomarev Sergey Stepanovich
Beekeeper with 30 years of experience, Candidate of Technical Sciences
Two-queen keeping of bee colonies is advisable in the northern regions and central zone of the Russian Federation, where the honey collection period is short and ends in July.
Caring for bees in the apiary
Let's look at the pros and cons of two-queen keeping in multi-hull hives.
Advantages
- increase in honey yield;
- increased bee activity;
- increased seeding;
- reduction of feed consumption in winter (mutual heating ).
Flaws
- difficulty in preventing swarming;
- deterioration of ventilation ;
- heavy and bulky hives;
- the need to disassemble the entire structure when viewing the frames ).
FAQ. Questions and answers
What is the function of the queen bee in the hive?
The main function of the queen is laying eggs. Each family has only one fertile individual. Insects carefully take care of their mother and reliably protect her. She even has her own “entourage” that provides her with royal jelly.
How to distinguish the queen from other bees?
It is not difficult to distinguish a queen bee from worker bees; this can be done by size and shape. Its elongated body can reach sizes of 20-25 mm, and its belly, unlike ordinary individuals, extends beyond the wings. There is also a sting, but it is used for protection against other queens.
What is the life expectancy of the fetal uterus?
The queen can live 5 years, but it is not practical to keep her that long for honey production. It is advisable to replace it with a new one after two years, since seeding decreases after this time.
What happens if the uterus does not fly around?
If she doesn't do this, a drone infestation will appear. And this will mean that the family is doomed to death.
Is it possible to get a fertile queen without mating with drones?
No you can not.
