Queen Clarification (for Cathy)

Happy Father's Day to all the current and future Fathers of the world (especially those who read this blog)!  I would wish a Happy Father's Day to all of the bee-daddies, but they die shortly after they mate with a queen...not quite a royal wedding. 

Honeybees only come in three varieties: queens, workers, and drones.  The males (drones) remain highly regulated by the colony because they serve only one purpose...mating.  Also, little known fact, drones do not have stingers!  Otherwise, the majority of a hive composition is females: queen and her workers.  Queens and workers start their lives in the same way but things change three days into their life.  The food of choice for both in the beginning is royal jelly.  Royal jelly is produced within the hive as a food for these youngsters.  After day three, the workers are weened off of the royal jelly and begin a different diet with more proteins and carbs.  The virgin queen continues to feed on only royal jelly which allows her to grow larger and enables her to develop reproductive organs.  A queen cell will be much bigger than the rest (will get a picture when they start making them).  Queens only get one shot at mating, so they make it count by reproducing with several drones in special swarm of queens and drones!  Not to get too involved with the details, a much more technical explanation will be found in any of the books I have recommended on my profile.  Unfortunately, due to the influx of Africanized honey bees (A. m. scutellata) in the state of Florida, the common practice is to replace your queen annually with one mated at a reputable apiary.  This prevents one of your own virgin queens from going and mixing it up with a swarm of Africanized drones and end up producing the species from within your own hives!

Now for the real purpose of this posting:  I received feedback a reader...who will NOT remain anonymous...my mother-in-law...who said that she could not find the queen in the picture provided.  So here is clarification:

The queen is circled in green...if you are still wondering.

In summary, it is a good but short life for the males of the colony...it just goes to show that behind every "he-bee" is a strong queen bee ready to rip off his reproductive organs and allow him to pass on from this life.

Happy Father's Day!