Male bees typically die after mating with the queen bee, but even if they survive, they cannot become a “queen.”
What is a Queen Bee? The queen bee is a mature female bee that has mated and lives within a colony or hive of honeybees. The queen is usually the mother of most (some are offspring from the previous generation) if not all, of the bees in the hive. The queen develops from a larva selected by worker bees and is specially fed to reach sexual maturity. Normally, there is only one mature queen bee that has mated in a hive. The queen bee is the only female bee that has the right to lay eggs in the colony, larger and longer than male bees and worker bees, with shorter wings relative to her body. Her primary role is to lay eggs, and she does not produce honey. The queen hatches from an egg like other eggs, but the larva is fed with a special substance called royal jelly produced by worker bees, which is very nutritious, contained in a separate cell designated for the queen or for bees preparing to develop into a queen. The queen bee lives for 3 to 5 years, and each hive only has one queen bee. If there are multiple queens in the hive, they will typically separate into a new colony, often in the spring. The queen produces the best during her first year. If the queen bee is lost, the worker bees can create a new queen. |
