Honeybee colonies are centered around a single, reproductive figure: the queen. She is the mother of nearly every bee in the hive, and her presence dictates the entire social order. The colony consists of the queen, male drones, and sterile female workers who perform all other tasks. This relationship is not a simple monarchy, and workers possess the collective power to decide the queen’s fate if she fails to meet the hive’s standards. The decision to replace her can manifest in dramatically different ways, ranging from a planned, peaceful transition to a violent, rapid execution.
Why a Colony Needs a New Queen
The decision to replace a queen is rooted in the colony’s need for maximum reproductive efficiency and cohesive social order. A queen’s primary role is egg-laying, and a healthy queen can deposit up to 2,000 eggs per day during peak season. When her egg-laying rate declines due to age, injury, or depleted sperm stores, the resulting “poor brood pattern” signals to the workers that she is failing.
Another signal is the reduction in her chemical output, specifically the Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP). This complex blend of compounds acts as the hive’s coordinating signal, suppressing the workers’ ability to develop their own ovaries and triggering attendant behaviors. As the queen ages, the quantity and composition of her QMP diminish, and its distribution throughout the hive becomes less effective. Workers perceive this chemical decline as a loss of vitality, prompting them to initiate the process of raising a successor.
Planned Replacement: The Supersedure Process
The colony’s preferred method for changing leadership is a controlled succession known as supersedure. This process is triggered when workers recognize the current queen’s decline but are not yet in a state of crisis. They begin by constructing one to three specialized, peanut-shaped queen cells, typically on the face of the brood comb.
Workers deposit a young larva or egg into these cells and feed the developing insect an exclusive, nutrient-rich diet of royal jelly. This specialized feeding triggers the female larva’s development into a new queen. After the new queen emerges and successfully mates, the colony may briefly contain two queens, known as an efficient supersedure. The aged mother queen simply fades away as the new queen takes over reproductive duties, allowing for a smooth continuation of the colony’s brood cycle.
Violent Execution: Queen Balling
In sharp contrast to peaceful supersedure, workers may resort to a rapid, violent execution called queen balling. This aggressive behavior involves hundreds of worker bees surrounding the queen in a tight, pulsating cluster. Balling is typically an emergency response to a sudden threat, such as the introduction of a foreign queen, an abrupt loss of the old queen’s pheromonal signal, or extreme stress within the hive.
The mechanism of death is primarily suffocation and hyperthermia, delivered by the workers’ combined effort. Worker bees within the tight ball vibrate their wing muscles intensely, which rapidly raises the temperature within the cluster to lethal levels, sometimes exceeding 115 degrees Fahrenheit. This intense heat effectively smothers the queen.
Workers may also attempt to sting the queen or tear at her body with their mandibles, although the primary cause of death is usually the heat and physical constraint. Balling is a collective, immediate reaction to a perceived threat to the colony’s harmony. It is an act of quality control, ensuring that only the most fit queen leads the hive.