This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

"Queens" The Life and times of the Honeybee in Mableton!

The house is becoming all abuzz.

We are nearing the end of January and the time has come for the queen to kick it into gear.  Her only job is to lay eggs.  She does, this each and every spring, growing the colony at a phenomenal rate to have enough bees in April for " the flow".  The flow is when the flowers bloom, the bees buzz, we Sneeze and the beekeeper is dancing. We are really happy because when the weather is fine, the hives are overflowing and the workers are working.  This means Honey.

The queen's job is a lonely one.  Everything depends on her and her ability to produce the Queen Pheromone.  This is the substance that tells all the workers everything is right and good in the house.  When the Queen Pheromone starts to diminish, it is hard to get it out to all the 60,000-80,000 worker bees. This is the signal that it is time to start making Queen cells and grow a new queen.  It's like your gas tank. When the meter gets low, you just fill up.  So, when the Queen Pheromone gets low, she can't fill up again and it spells the end of her days.  The workers decide when and where to put queen cells in the hive.  

Once that is done, then they are waiting on the new queen to take over. Sometimes, this daughter will allow the mother to continue to lay eggs. Sometimes not so much.  The mother will eventually die or be killed off by the workers.  The queen is what keeps the colony alive but it is the workers that steer the colony. The important take away that all the bees are needed and essential to the colony.

Find out what's happening in South Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

THINGS you can do.  If you are thinking about planting a garden, then think about fruits, vegetables and flowers that can help the honeybee.  It is an easy lookup on the internet.   

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?