The biggest, bright golden colored bee of the colony is called queen bee. She manages all the activities of abee colony. In general there are only one queen bee in a hive or colony.
The abdomen of queen bee is wide and bloated but the wings are comparatively small in size. They are bigger in size than worker bee. Queen born from the fertilized egg cell. Their only tasks is laying eggs.
She doesn’t do anything else in the bee colony. In the last part of the abdomen of queen bee there is a open sting and a ovary. The breeding organs of a queen bee is highly improved.
She is capable of breeding for 3-7 years in her whole life. Mate with drones for once in her life. While mating she mates with several drones at a time.
On an average a queen bee can lay 2000-3000 eggs daily. They lay both fertile and infertile eggs. The next queen of the colony and worker bees born from the fertilized eggs. And the infertile eggs produces drone bees.
In a colony all bees are the child of a queen bee. Worker bees take care and serve food to the queen. If the queen see another queen in her colony then she kill her by biting her with her string.
But anyhow if the new queen survive then she make a new colony with few drones and worker bees. If the queen of a hive or colony suddenly die then another queen bee takes her colony.
Generally queen bee stays in a big chamber of the colony which is located at the lower part of the beehive. A queen bee generally met with drone once in her life.
She met with several (12-15) drones and store upto 6 million sperm to her spermatheca. And she use those sperm for rest of her life. She keeps the sperm alive by using one type of material, produced from her body.
After two days of mating she starts laying eggs. The mandibles of queen bees mouth is very sharp.
The ejected pheromones from queen bees jaw amalgamate all the bee of a hive or colony and control them. In a word, queen bee is the source of all power and activities of a bee colony or hive.