How do queen bees get to become queen!?

Question

How do queen bees get to become queen!?

Answer 1

eeeeh I am no bee expert, but, as far as I am aware, a larva.... any old larva, gets fed royal jelly by the workers. This induces physiological changes in the larva which grown on to become a potential queen.

I believe existing queenie goes arround hunting for possible rivals and destroys them. Some get though her reign of terror however.

I also believe that a new queen only becomes a queen after mating, which I think usually occurs during a swarm, but I might be further out on this one.

Answer 2

workers are immature females, the queens get full nutrition to reach sexual maturity.

if the old queen swarms, or the hive gets big enough for there to be areas on the fringes away from her chemical signal, workers will make several large cells and move ordinary young female grubs into them, then feed them up on royal jelly instead of the ordinary pollen. these hatch into virgin queens. the first one to hatch will try to find the others and kill them as they emerge, as will the old queen if she is still in the hive and comes across them before she gets the urge to swarm, a fair fraction of the workers going with her.

the virgin queen takes over laying for the remainder of the hive after her mating flight, or if there are more than one the workers may split into smaller groups again and some swarm with the other new queens.

if a hive left queen-less with no young brood to make up a new queen, one or several of the workers may start laying, but this is a bit of an 'end game', as because she is unmated, she can lay only drones, which will leave the hive to try to find virgins emerging from other hives, taking the workers genes, but the old hive is doomed.

Answer 3

i would think they are born like that since they are physically different to other bees

Answer 4

When they are young, they get treated extra good, then when she grows up, she becomes a princess, then she will want to be a queen so she battles the origanal queen, and who ever does not die, that will be the queen, then the cycle starts over again!*Hope i helped!

Answer 5

arent they born that way like ours

Answer 6

they marry a king.......according to mr bean

Answer 7

They are that way from the minute they are born.

Answer 8

They are born 'queen'.

Answer 9

Queen bees are born queens. At some point in her life the queen bee gives birth to another queen. You can say a queen bee is queen by right of birth! :)

For further reading try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee