The short answer
A queen’s main jobs are laying eggs and releasing pheromones that influence colony behavior. She is the colony’s mother, not its ruler.
Laying eggs
The queen lays nearly all the eggs that become the colony’s workers and drones, and she also lays the eggs from which new queens may be raised. In the busy season a good queen can lay more than a thousand eggs a day, and some sources cite figures up to about 2,000. She tends to lay fewer eggs in autumn and winter, then builds up again as the weather warms.
She also determines, cell by cell, whether an egg is fertilized. Fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens); unfertilized eggs become drones. Workers prepare cells and the queen chooses where to lay, usually moving across comb in an outward pattern.
Pheromones and colony cohesion
Her scent is a key part of how the colony recognizes that it has a queen. Pheromones from the queen are spread through contact between workers and are linked to:
- Keeping most workers from developing their ovaries.
- Encouraging workers to stay calm and cohesive.
- Influencing whether the colony builds queen cells.
- Attracting workers to groom and feed her.
- Helping swarms cluster around her.
These effects are real but complex, and researchers continue to study them. A weakening signal, for example in an aging queen, is thought to be one reason colonies replace her.
Attendants and care
Workers around her feed her, groom her and carry her pheromones through the colony. They also remove her waste. Because she is fed by workers, she does not forage and has no need to build comb. For more on how she is physically different, see queen honey bee anatomy.
The queen does not rule
Workers decide when to raise new queens, when to swarm and when to reject a new queen. The queen’s behavior and scent influence these choices, but the colony as a whole responds to many cues, including food, space, season and brood. Some beekeepers describe it as a collective decision-making system (see the bee hive hierarchy) with the queen as its source of eggs and signals.
Swarming and replacement
Before swarming, workers raise new queens and the existing queen slims down and lays less. Often the old queen leaves with the swarm (see swarm cells), and a new queen takes over the original hive. Colonies also replace failing queens by supersedure. See how a queen bee is born for the reasons colonies raise queens.
Without a queen
What happens without a queen bee? If the queen disappears and the colony has young eggs or larvae, workers may raise an emergency queen. Signs of a queenless colony can include no fresh eggs, a louder roar or restless behavior, and eventually fewer workers. If no replacement queen succeeds, some workers may start laying drone-producing eggs, and the colony may decline. Consult a local mentor or beekeeping association on options such as combining or requeening.
Common questions
What is a worker bee? A female bee that normally does not lay eggs and performs colony jobs. See queen bee vs normal bee.
How do bees know who is the queen? Mostly by scent and by how she was raised.
Overview: the honey bee queen.