Do Queen Bees Fly?

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Do queen bees fly? Yes! But the answer is more interesting than that – let us have a look at why and how queen bees fly. Queen bees are fascinating creatures

A queen bee and a worker bee are quite similar. Both are female and are genetically very similar. A queen has the ability to develop big ovaries which can lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs.

Do Queen Bees Fly?

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Queen bees leave the hive for the first time to conduct mating flights. Once a queen is mated, the most common reason she will leave the hive is when the hive swarms.

Why Do Queen Bees Fly?

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A virgin queen emerges from her cell and will quickly go around the hive and try to sting any other queen cells to death.  A queen bee is an incredible animal.

The Queen Bee Mating Flight

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The Drone Congregation Area

On the day of the mating flights, she will leave the hive and fly to an area known as a drone congregation area or DCA.

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The Drone Comet

The drone comet is a cloud of drones that follow the queen. As she enters the DCA she will emit a mating pheromone and every boy (drone) will pick up on this faster

This follows on from what we spoke about earlier – a queen wants to test her boys out for their strength and speed.

Why Do Virgin Queens Mate With Drones In The Air?

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How Do The Matings Affect The Hive?

The genetics of different drone fathers confer different abilities upon the offspring. Worker bees are hatched from fertilized eggs.

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She will also swarm a few times in her life and found new hives. When she gets old, she will either get killed by a young queen, or she will just die.

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