In order for there to be a “queen bee,” there must be a colony of bees. But not all bees live in colonies. There are species of bees called “solitary” bees. Among them there are only two kinds of bees, the males and the egg-laying females.

But bees that live in colonies, called “social bees,” have a third form of bee known as “workers.” The workers are really female bees that ordinarily do not lay eggs. So in a colony of social bees we have the workers, the males, who are called “drones,” and the one egg laying female, the mother of the colony, who is called the “queen.”

Here is how a queen bumblebee spends her life. She passes the winter in a hole dug in a sandbank or other suitable place. She is the only member of the colony that lives through the winter! In the spring, she starts a new colony.

She first looks for a home, perhaps a deserted mouse nest. She heaps the soft material of the nest together and hollows out a place under it to serve as a nursery. Then she visits flowers for pollen and nectar and places a lump of beebread in the dry hollow she has prepared. She lays some eggs on this lump, covers them with wax, and sits over them, keeping the cold air away with her body.

Near her she has made a large waxen cell, called a “honeypot,” which she has filled with enough honey for food to last until her eggs hatch. As soon as her first brood of young have grown big enough to use their wings, they take over most of mother’s work. They prepare wax, make the beebread, and keep the honeypot filled to use in bad weather.

During the early part of the season, the only bees born are the workers. But before the summer is over, young queens and males, or drones, will also grow up in the colony. In the fall, the colony breaks up. All that the queen bee has done all summer long is lay eggs!

Among the honeybees, the queen lays all the eggs, but she cannot care for them. She may lay more than 1,500 eggs per day and about 250,000 in a season! She lays fertilized eggs that develop into workers or queens, depending on the needs of the colony. The unfertilized eggs develop into drones.

Young queens are reared in special queen cells. Before they emerge, the mother queen and about half the workers swarm off to start the new colony. The first young queen to emerge kills her sister queens in their cells and thus becomes the new mother queen!