The queen bee - the center of the hive
The queen bee is the center of the hive. It is also called Weisel or Stockmutter and is the only female animal in a stick that is sexually mature. Their physical shape is different from the drones and worker bees. So her abdomen is much longer and wins in the course of her life to extent. In the abdomen of the queen bee are several egg tubes (ovaries), with which she produces and lays eggs. The function of the queen in general, besides laying eggs, is the control of the hive by pheromones. A peculiarity of the queen is that she has a sting like the worker bees, but she only uses it to kill rivals before she embarks on a wedding flight.
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The queen bee with her workers
The development of a new queen bee can have different reasons. Either the queen dies or due to age causes the production of pheromones by the queen (reproduction). The latter is a sign for the drones, a new queen in special honeycomb, the so-called Nachschaffungszellen (Weiselzellen), nachzug, which they then raise with a special juice (royal jelly). Even with a division of the bee colony, which can occur through the swarming, it may be that the need for the re-creation of a queen bee arises.
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From a biological point of view, the queen bee is vital, because only through her can be a bee colony or survive the winter. Life worker bees and drones just a few weeks, the life of a queen amounts to up to five years.
In breeding lines attention is paid to the quality of the bees.
On the right you can see the seal of the community of European buckfast farmers "Buckfast Abbey". If you are looking for information about breeders, just contact us in chat, via email or just by phone.
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The mating of a queen takes place in the so-called wedding flight. The queen bee flies several times with a dozen drones. At drone collection sites then the fertilization takes place. Here, the queen takes the seeds in her seminal vesicle. As a result, the queen is now able to lay fertilized eggs over a period of up to four years. If the seed stock runs out, it just lays unfertilized eggs, which in turn cause drones. If there is enough fresh brood, the queen is usually replaced by a new queen.
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This measure is due to the conservation instinct of the animals. Through a young and powerful bee queen, the bee colony is sustainably strengthened and protected. In addition, the mating can also take place with unrelated drones. Evolutionary biology, this is also beneficial because it replenished so far completed gene pool of the bee colony by other genes. This can bring a certain vitality of the people with them and bring new behaviors and characteristics with it.
Did you know that there is a color mark on the king?
This not only has practical reasons to quickly locate a queen in a cane, but this color hatching mark captures the age of the queen. This mark consists of a sequence of colors (white, yellow, red, green, blue), which is internationally standardized and is attached to the queen bee with a non-toxic adhesive to the bees.
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