Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[drstratton]

I can only pray that's why I find dead bees in the yard... that they don't live long anyway.

Other questions ~ all the workers are female? So where does a fertilized queen come from & how is she chosen for such an honor? Does each individual hive/house/box have its own individual queen when we see several boxes set side-by-side in a field?

Bee Tx
Thirsty Thursday ~ Keiko ~ day early
View attachment 4210497

The bees build different sized cells. Drone cells are larger than those of workers. Eggs for worker bees(female) are fertilized. Eggs for drones (male) are unfertilized. The queen knows which to lay, determined by the size of the cell. A queen comes from a fertilized egg. The bees know when to replace their queen. She will be replaced if she's not laying well or is sick, also if she decides to swarm. They choose a fertilized egg and feed it only royal jelly until it is capped over in about 9-10 days. The queen cell is larger than worker and drone cells and looks kind of like a peanut. Worker bees and drones are only fed royal jelly for 3 days. So, the difference between raising a worker vs a queen is the food they are given. Each individual hive has one queen.

Bee talk tax

 

[featherhead007]

I can only pray that's why I find dead bees in the yard... that they don't live long anyway.

Other questions ~ all the workers are female? So where does a fertilized queen come from & how is she chosen for such an honor? Does each individual hive/house/box have its own individual queen when we see several boxes set side-by-side in a field?

Bee Tx
Thirsty Thursday ~ Keiko ~ day early
View attachment 4210497

So many questions! The only thing you should asking is “To bee or not to bee! What a ridiculous question .

 

[featherhead007]

The bees build different sized cells. Drone cells are larger than those of workers. Eggs for worker bees(female) are fertilized. Eggs for drones (male) are unfertilized. The queen knows which to lay, determined by the size of the cell. A queen comes from a fertilized egg. The bees know when to replace their queen. She will be replaced if she's not laying well or is sick, also if she decides to swarm. They choose a fertilized egg and feed it only royal jelly until it is capped over in about 9-10 days. The queen cell is larger than worker and drone cells and looks kind of like a peanut. Worker bees and drones are only fed royal jelly for 3 days. So, the difference between raising a worker vs a queen is the food they are given. Each individual hive has one queen.

Bee talk tax
View attachment 4210507

Seems she sure knows her bee business. (That’s the buzz in town anyways)