23d • Bees 101
How Does an Egg Become a Queen, Worker, or Drone?
A queen, a worker, and a drone look different and live different lives. Yet each begins as a small egg in a wax cell. Where do their paths separate? Last time, we looked at how new generations develop. This week, we can separate two processes that are easily confused, becoming male or female, and becoming a queen or worker.
In the usual honey bee pattern, an unfertilized egg develops into a male bee, a drone. A fertilized egg develops into a female bee. Both queens and workers are female. Fertilization alone does not determine which of those two forms a female will become.
That distinction develops during larval life, when workers feed and care for the young. Very young female larvae have the potential to develop into queens. The feeding they receive during this early period helps direct their development. Larvae being raised as queens receive abundant royal jelly throughout their larval growth. Young worker larvae also receive royal jelly, so simply receiving some royal jelly does not make a bee a queen, the feeding pattern and its timing does.
These different developmental pathways produce females with different bodies and capacities. A queen develops the reproductive system needed to become the colony’s principal egg layer. Workers develop the bodies and capacities that support brood care, comb building, food gathering, and the colony’s many other needs.
An adult worker cannot later become a queen. The opportunity to follow that developmental path belongs to early life. This helps us understand another relationship within the colony. Producing a new queen depends on more than having a fertilized egg. Producing a new queen also depends on having suitably young brood and workers able to provide the necessary care. The next reproductive female develops through the planning and work of the existing colony.
For this week, try explaining the distinction in your own words. Fertilization normally separates the male and female pathways, and early larval development separates the queen and worker pathways.
What changes in your understanding of the colony when you realize that workers help shape the development of its next queen?
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How Does an Egg Become a Queen, Worker, or Drone?
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