It's snowing ... it's winter ... the hive is in some kind of dream. However, something is happening ... it's time to start a new life ... The queen bee feels that time is changing and that she needs to start laying eggs in order to start a new wave of life in the hive .... now is the time to talk about her.
Queen bee....
The queen is a fully mature bee capable of producing offspring-bees. When we say sexually mature, we mean the fully developed sexual organ - ovaries and tubes and the ability to deposit fertilized eggs in the cells from which the worker bees will be derived. However, although earlier and now it is believed that the mother is the one who decides what society will do, science has proven that this is not the case. If the bees feed abundantly, the queen will lay eggs. Society is preparing the urge to swarm and it will depend on the condition of the hive - whether there is space, food, parasites ...
But...
When the queen bee disappears, an alarm is raised and a hum is heard in the hive. When the queen exists, the bees feel the queen substance that she secretes and the bees spread it around the hive. Bees raise a queen from fertilized eggs like worker bees. However, due to the special food, ie royal jelly, with which the bees feed the larva, the time of the queen's release is shortened by 5 days and she comes out by 16 days, while the worker bee comes out by 21 days. The queen itself is larger and longer than all other bees. The length of the body is 20-25 mm depending on the type of bee, the weight of the unfertilized queen is 150 -200 mg, while the fertilized one weighs up to 250 mg. A quality queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs in 24 hours. There are some queens that can lay up to 4000 eggs in 24 hours. The quality of the queen itself affects how she is fed during growing up as well as the quality of mating with drones. She lays the largest eggs when she is young and later they are all smaller and thus the bees. That is why it is recommended that the queens be changed every other year. Otherwise, the queens can live from 5-7 years.
When the young queen comes out of the queen for 7-10 days she is ready to mate. Then she develops scent glands which attract drones and she goes on a "wedding flight". After 4 to 5 days, the queen lays eggs after returning to her hive. In case it does not mate after two weeks, the queen loses the mating order and she becomes a drone. As soon as the queen begins to lay eggs, the society works harder and ingests pollen and nectar.
It often happens that the queen initially lays more eggs (2-4) in the cell. This can mislead the beekeeper into being a fake queen. The main difference between them is that in the case of a true queen, the eggs are at the bottom of the cell, while in the case of a false one they are on the walls of the cell.
You have a great article. You are a good beekeeper. I don't understand that, the only thing I like is honey, real homemade, pure honey.