The Queen has been spotted!

During one of our hive inspections at the end of July we captured this photo of one of our frames. Do you see the queen in the photo below? Her golden color and impressive size help distinguish her from the rest of the worker bees! 

​

---

This photo also captures the presence of the remaining queen cup! It was at this point in our hive inspection that we realized our colony requeened itself.  While looking at the comb we could see eggs, larva, and pupae. That was a reassuring sign that our new queen was doing well. 

As we have gotten into beekeeping, we have learned some amazing facts about the queen bee! Here are some of our favorites...

• Worker bees build special cells called "queen cups" when it is time to rear a new queen. Nurse bees will feed the queen larva royal jelly, which is a special food secreted from their heads. This food is higher protein, sugar, and fats than food given to worker bees. 
• Queen bees only take 16 days to develop from egg! Worker bees take 21 and drones take 24.
• A virgin queen will embark on a mating flight where she will mate with 10-20 drones from other colonies. Having multiple mates helps with genetic diversity!
• The queen has an organ called a spermatheca that stores the sperm from her mating flight. After her mating flights are complete, she will not need to mate ever again. She has the ability to control her spermatheca. "On" to lay fertilized eggs that will develop into female worker bees. If she turns the spermatheca "off" the result is a male drone bee.
• A queen lays approximately 1,000 eggs a day!
• A queen bee can live for 2-3 years, whereas worker bees live for only around 25-25 days (up to 200 for bees overwintering)

It is not always necessary to see your queen when doing a hive inspection. In fact, going through every frame looking for her could end up in her getting rolled between the frames and killed by the beekeeper or even dropped on the ground outside of the hive! 

Did you find the queen in the first photo? Check the photo below to see!