How does the queen bee become the queen bee?

Question

Just interested in how there becomes a "queen" in insects such as bees and termites. How do they get so big? How are they chosen?

Answer 1

When a hive needs a new queen, some of the larvae are fed 'royal jelly'. This turns them into fertile queens. When they 'hatch' into full grown adults, the first one out will open and destroy the others, so she rules. If more than one hatches at the same time, they will fight for the right to rule.

Answer 2

A regular bee larvae has to be fed royal jelly (a mixture of pollen, honey, and just a dash of hormones) within 3 days of being laid as an egg.  The comb (cell that contains the eggs and larvae) is rebuilt to accommodate a larger hatch-ling.  When the queen hatches, she finds the other queen cells and stings them though the cell.  A queen honeybee is the only kind of honeybee that can sting more than once without dying.  This is because her stinger is not barbed like a worker bee.  If any other queens hatch before the "first born" stings them, she will challenge them by making a noise called piping (it sounds kinda like he-he-he).  They will then fight to the death.  However they don't always fight, sometime, if the hive has a large enough population, the new queen will leave and part of the bees will follow her to begin a new colony.  This is called "casting a swarm".  Also the queens are not fertile until they mate.  If she lays eggs before mating, the unfertilized eggs will hatch into drones (male bees) which she needs for mating.  All worker and queen bees are female.