Monarchies are fragile political systems. The handoff of political power from one ruler to the next is always a vulnerable period for any organization, but it is especially risky in a monarchy. Sibling rivalries, palace gossip, and even murder have historically been common when one monarch dies and is succeeded by another.
Bees have evolved some interesting behaviors to allow them to replace a dead or failing queen. I took the picture above in a hive that I split two weeks ago. There were three boxes that made up the mother hive. I just found the one with the queen in it and moved it to a new location. The remaining bees realized that their queen was missing when the scent of her queen pheromone faded.
It only takes a few hours of queenlessness for the whole character of the hive to change. When the weather is good and the flowers are blooming, a hive is normally focused on gathering pollen and making baby bees. When the queen pheromone fades, though, the hive goes into a state of emergency.
Only the youngest baby bees can be turned into a queen. If the colony fails to start making a new queen in the first few days, it is game over and the colony will wither away. Summertime bees only live a few weeks, so they need a queen to keep laying eggs to raise replacement workers. No queen means no eggs and big trouble.
This particular colony started four queen cells by chewing away the bottom edge of a cell with a day-old larva in it. Then they extend the cell down to make more room and pack it full of royal jelly.
All baby bees get a little royal jelly just after they hatch, but queens get an all-you-can-eat pool of jelly. They are litteraly floating in a pool of nutrient and hormone rich food that allows them to grow much faster than their worker caste sisters.
These queen cells are fully sealled, which means that it will just be a few days before they hatch.
So far so good, but there is a lot that can go wrong in the making of a new queen.
I will post an update when the queens hatch.
