The Queen Bee

The queen bee is a fascinating creature. In her sacred world, she is royalty. The leader of her hive, the mother of most, if not all that who reside with her, and one whom her dedicated worker bees care for. And she works hard – a well-mated and well-fed (on ‘royal jelly’) queen can lay around 2,000 eggs per days during spring, which amounts for more than half her bodyweight in eggs every day. She is clever, able to control the sex of the eggs she lays. She dominates her workers by releasing pheromones known as the queen’s scent. When a strong, young queen bee senses a new potential queen bee has been born, she locates other virgin queens, stinging them one at a time. In the event that two virgin honey bee queens emerge simultaneously, they fight each other to the death.