by Calvin Robinson

Created on: May 11, 2008

There are many similarities and differences in a queen honeybee and a worker honeybee. All honeybees start out as eggs and hatch into larvae then become pupae befor emerging as adult bees. The female bees are queens or workers and the male bees are drones. In fact the only real difference between queens and workers is in the diet of royal jelly that queens get during the larval stage then continuing as adults. Worker bees only get royal jelly for the first three days of the larval stage. Any worker larvae can become a queen if it continues to be fed royal jelly after the first three days. There is even an argument as to whether or not there are two or three castes of honeybees in a colony. Some people say there are three castes made up of queens, workers and drones. Other people say there are only two castes made up of workers and drones, with queens being considered a specialized worker bee. One thing is for certain, though it is passive, the queen does rule the hive with her pheromones.

When a queen lays an egg is it is either fertilized, which means it will become either a worker or a queen, or unfertilized and will become a drone bee. A queen decides, based on cell size, whether to lay an egg that is fertilized or not. If she lays a fertilized egg, that egg usually becomes a worker bee, which is a female with undeveloped ovaries. The queen pheromone keeps the workers ovaries from developing, but since they are female they can also lay eggs. The workers will sometimes lay eggs in large colonies where there is a lot of separation from the queen or in queen-less colonies. Since worker bees are unmated, all worker eggs will become drones. In colonies where the queen suddenly dies, they colony can make a new queen using fertilized eggs or worker larvae that are less than three days old. You see, all larvae get fed a diet of royal jelly for the first three days of their lives. After that, only developing queens get fed royal jelly. So, a worker larvae and a queen larvae are exactly the same to the point the royal jelly feeding stops. A queen continues to get royal jelly her entire life and accounts for her super bee qualities. Royal jelly is a highly nutritious substances worker bees secreat after eating honey and pollen.

A queen puts off queen pheromone, which keeps these worker bees from laying eggs and keeps the hive in order. If she becomes weak, the colony will replace her. She is constantly attended and groomed by a group of workers that feed her royal jelly,

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