Published 17:04 IST, September 28th 2020
Beekeeper explains what happens 'If a colony doesn’t have a queen bee'; netizens amused
Beekeeper Erika Thompson shared a post, in which she introduced a mated queen to the colony as she tutored why it was essential for productive hive.
A Texan beekeeper’s explainer footage about the anatomy of a honeybee colony and queen rearing has amused the internet. In a post shared by the Texas Bee Works, a private beekeeping services firm based in Austin, Texas, US, founder Erika Thompson shared a post, in which she introduced a mated queen to the colony as she tutored why it was an essential component for the healthy and productive hive and on how the swarm selects the queen.
“If a colony doesn’t have a queen bee, I can either give them female eggs from another colony so they can make their own queen, or I can expedite the process by introducing a mated adult queen to the colony as I did here,” the bee rearer explained alongside the video in her post.
“This colony had been queenless for a while and was eager to accept a new queen,” Erika informed, adding, that it was essential they had the pheromones of the queen for day-to-day hive activities. While the bee breeder is often seen keeping her hands busy at beekeeping a hive, where she is either removing bees from a backyard shed or managing a swarm at found at compost bins, in this video, the founder has the task to supply the queenless hive their leader.
Often, the queen bee is derived from the larva of a highly productive colony, so that it possesses traits such as temperament, resistance to diseases and pests, seasonal population adjustments, but in this case, the beekeeper introduced a mated bee, as they accepted as vital in maintaining the population. The hive’s behaviour towards the mated queen is generally of the one that has accepted a monarch as a well-mated queen will thrive.
Queen-hive connection 'fascinating'
In the clip, Erica demonstrated the behaviour of the bees as she introduces a new queen to their colony. The bees can be seen buzzing and inspecting their new queen as “reliable”. “The female worker bees do all the work for the colony. They build the hive, clean the hive, collect food, raise the baby bees, take care of the queen and defend the hive,” Texas Bee Works explained in a separate post, indicating why it is important to introduce the leader to the hive and soon. Netizens admired the informative post, saying, that it was “the best thing they learnt today”.
Updated 17:03 IST, September 28th 2020