The queen honey bee is the cornerstone of a honey bee colony. Despite her regal title, the queen is not a monarch in the traditional sense—she doesn’t govern or make decisions for the colony. Instead, her primary role is as the egg-layer, the mother of all bees in the nest. The workers, not the queen, make group decisions that drive the colony forward.

Queens develop from the same type of eggs as worker bees, but their development is determined by diet. Female larvae destined to become queens are fed a nutrient-rich substance called royal jelly throughout their development. This specialised diet enables queens to mature from egg to adult in just 16 days, inside vertically hanging wax cells known as queen cells.

When a queen emerges as an adult, she is still a virgin. During her first two weeks, she undertakes mating flights, mating with multiple drones and storing their semen in an abdominal organ called the spermatheca. Once she has mated, she returns to the nest and begins laying eggs. The queen can fertilise eggs to produce female offspring or leave them unfertilised to produce males (drones).

The queen’s body is uniquely adapted for her role, with enlarged ovaries and a longer abdomen to support her prolific egg-laying. During peak season, she may lay up to 2,000 eggs per day and can lay over 500,000 eggs in her lifetime. She determines the type of egg to lay by measuring the size of each wax cell—larger cells receive unfertilised eggs to produce drones, while smaller cells are for fertilised eggs that become workers.

In addition to egg-laying, the queen plays a crucial role in maintaining colony cohesion through the production of pheromones. These chemical signals regulate the behaviour of worker bees, encouraging them to forage, collect nectar and pollen, build comb, and suppress their own egg-laying. The presence of a queen promotes harmony and ensures the colony operates effectively. If the queen is lost, the workers immediately take steps to replace her to restore balance.

Queens typically live for one to three years, though most are replaced after about 12–18 months, often during swarming season. The old queen departs with a swarm, while a newly reared queen takes her place.

In the beekeeping world, queen rearing is a specialised practice. Beekeepers breed queens for traits such as high productivity, gentleness, disease resistance, and hygienic behaviour. A strong, healthy queen is the foundation of a thriving colony, ensuring its continued success and survival.

The queen honey bee is a remarkable creature, central to the vitality of the hive. Her life, shaped by diet and her role as the colony’s sole egg-layer, underscores the intricate and fascinating dynamics of honey bee society.