There is no way to sugar coat this news. My Queen Honey Bee has passed away. I had my suspicions for awhile now. The once exuberant worker bees stopped buzzing with enthusiasm around their hive, and sightings amongst the wild flowers in our yard have slowed. But in good news, based on Dad’s hive inspection they are attempting to make a new Queen. However that takes time, and patience isn’t my strongest virtue. When this happened before in 2016, to help ensure the survival of my hive Mom and Dad drove for hours to buy me a new Queen Bee, but she died shortly after arrival.
This leaves me in a quandary as to what to do about my hive this year. It doesn’t appear she died due to disease, because the other Honey Bees are healthy and active. They are just confused lacking leadership. A Queen Bee only lives about 2 to 3 years, so it may just be she succumbed to old age. Or, I’d hate to think this, but her royal subjects may not have been loyal and they committed regicide. The proletariat can be so moody sometimes. They are, however, hard at work trying to create a new Queen.
Any Worker Bee can lay the egg to become the new Queen. So thankfully they didn’t need the previous one to appoint her successor. After the larvae is hatched the Nurse Bees feed it a rich diet of Royal Jelly, which is packed with nutrients reserved only for their future Queen, as opposed to the traditional food fed the Worker Bees. Then the wait begins. It takes approximately 16 days for an egg to develop into a Queen. Which thankfully is a lot faster than the time it takes for the average Worker Bee to develop, which is 18 to 22 days.
Let’s face it, I’m not known for my patience. You know me, I like to take charge and fix things. But sadly I’m too big to fit into their hive, not to mention male. Honey Bees never let Drones rule their kingdoms. That’s because Drones have a reputation for being lazy. And rightly so because Drones don’t collect pollen, make honey, or care for the eggs. However, just because I’m male doesn’t mean I’m lazy like a Drone! I’m really good at telling everyone what to do! But alas my Honey Bees won’t listen to me.
About nine days after being laid as an egg the developing queen cell is capped, while the larva inside of it spins a cocoon and pupates. According to Dad, this appears to be the stage we are at in my Chuck BEEly Hive. Therefore, I’ve decided to wait and see if a new Queen takes charge, rather than tell Mom and Dad to go for a long ride to buy a very expensive replacement, that may or may not be accepted by the hive, and worst yet will dip into my treat fund!
Paws crossed all will be right in my kingdom soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in a more in-depth description of how a this process works, I recommend the Penn State’s Extension Program’s article, An Introduction to Queen Bee Development.
