How Bees Reproduce
Honey bee reproduction is both a simple yet complex process. The primary players are the female queen bee and the male drone bees. Each have a vital role to ensure survival of the colony and even the species. Let’s take a closer look at how bees mate and bring form new generations that keep everything buzzing along.
Perhaps, you have never witnessed the mating of honey bees. Me either and I’m a Master Beekeeper. This is because honey bees reproduce by mating away from the hive. We know they are successful when we see growing colonies – all involved in the same honey bee life cycle.
Honey Bee Reproduction
A colony of honey bees needs to rear a constant supply of new bees to support a population of 40,000 – 60,000 during Summer. These baby bees emerge from their cells as adults and take on the many tasks of the colony.
While all members of the colony support the reproductive process, not all are directly involved in mating. Most of the colony members are female worker bees.
Numbering into the thousands, they perform all the bee jobs of the colony except 1. Workers can never lay fertilized eggs because they can’t mate.
Sexual Reproduction
However, honey bees do practice sexual reproduction. Genetic material from a female and a male is combined to create a new individual. Mating can not take place without:
- a queen (female)
- drones (male)
Queen’s Role
A honey bee colony normally has one 1 queen bee at a time. (Though, I have had a hive that kept more than one queen for a short time.)
The larger size of the queen bee is due in part her large ovaries that produce eggs. Also, she has special anatomy that allows her to mate with drones and store semen in her body.
She can lay eggs that are fertilized or unfertilized with drone semen. The role of the queen bee goes far beyond just egg laying. Yet, that is the most important task she performs.
Primary Role of Drones
A small percentage of the bees in a colony are drones (male bees). They do not work for the colony – depending on the ladies to feed them, protect the hive etc.
But, the task of drones is very important. They have reproductive parts (penis, testes) – the semen inside their body is used to mate with virgin queens. Without them, the species would fail.
The Mating Process
Contrary to what some think, mating of bees does NOT take place inside the hive. This would be a true genetic disadvantage.
Queens mating with drones so closely related to them would tend to produce unhealthy offspring. Having different genes usually results in healthier bees overall.
Mating Flights
A few days after a new virgin queen emergences from her wax cell, she begins to make mating flights. This normally takes place on a warm afternoon and she is accompanied by several worker bees.
The virgin queen flies to a special area called a “drone congregation area”. How does the queen know where to go to mate? We don’t know!
In these special areas, mature drones monitor the sky for queens. Drone bees have large eyes and they put them to good use. They need to be able to see queens in flight.
When a virgin queen is sighted, several drones will give chase. Mating of honey bees takes place in flight.
The queen opens her sting chamber to allow a male to mount her and insert his endophallus (penis).
Once connected the drone deposits sperm into the queen very forcefully. The power needed to get the semen past the sting chamber and into the oviduct causes the male reproductive parts to break off.
Afterward, the drone falls to the ground where he will shortly die. Over the next few days, the queen bee mates with 12 – 20 drones.
The genetic variety provided by mating with multiple drones can produce both light and dark colored bees in the same colony.
Once her internal “spermatheca” is full of semen, mating time is over. She returns to the hive to begin egg laying and will never leave the hive again-unless she leaves with a bee swarm.
Queen’s Egg Laying Process
A few days after mating, the queen bee begins to lay eggs. Eggs are released from her ovary and travel down the oviduct before being deposited in a hexagonal beeswax cell.
As the egg travels through her body, she has the option to release semen and fertilize the egg – or not. Her choice depends on many factors that all relate to the needs of the colony.
The queen actually has the capacity to lay 2 types of bee eggs! She may lay an egg fertilized with semen or an unfertilized egg. Fertilized eggs will be female and become workers or a queen if one is needed.
Drones develop from unfertilized eggs and they are “haploid” – meaning that they only have 16 chromosomes instead of 32.
A queen begins her pattern of egg laying near the middle of a frame and expands in an outward spiral. This is why beekeepers check the brood pattern in this area of the hive to gauge the quality of the queen.
Developmental Stages
Honey bees are insects and (like all insects) go through 4 stages of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Young workers tend to and feed the growing bees during the larval development stage.
The time it takes to reach adulthood from a egg is slightly different for each:
- Drones – 24 days
- Workers – 21 days
- Queens – 16 days
Queen Replacement
Queens do not life forever. If her egg laying performance or her bee pheromones level drops, the colony will make plans to replace her. They will kill the old queen bee and select very young female larvae for a replacement.
When fed a special diet (including royal jelly), these larvae develop into sexually reproductive females– queens.
The first virgin queen to emerge from her cells will seek out and kill the other queen prospects. After a few days, she is ready to take her mating flight and start the process anew.
Cape Bees Reproduce Asexually
We can not discuss honey bee reproduction without a nod to the Cape Bees (Apis mellifera capensis). This is a subspecies of honey bee found in the cape of South Africa. They do not need males for reproduction.
Instead, female workers are able to lay eggs (fertilized by their own DNA) that become new workers. Researchers can not explain how this is possible.
The Cape bees are also know to practice social parasitism – they invade the nests of other bees and eventually take over by reproduction.
Swarming – Colony Reproduction
Another way honey bees reproduce is on the colony level. The colony as a whole can reproduce itself through a process, we call bee swarms.
In swarming the colony population will split. Half the population will go to a new location to make a second home. The remainder stay at the old site to continue and regrow in strength.
There are many factors that contribute to this action. Crowding in the hive is the most common and Spring is the most likely time for it to occur. Beekeepers often invest a lot of energy in trying to prevent swarming honey bees because we don’t want to loose bees to the wild.
FAQs
Female bees do not get pregnant as well see with mammal life forms. Instead they lay eggs that develop outside the queen’s body.
This can happen but queens do not normally mate with their own drones. Instead, virgin queens fly to mating sites that are farther away from the hive than her own drones do.
Yes, the queen honey bee can lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones. If she fails to mate when young – or runs out of stored semen, she can continue to lay eggs but they will all be males or drones.
Using semen from a variety of male bees results in genetic diversity and healthier insects over all.
Final Thoughts
Over thousands of years, bees have developed ways to mate and reproduce. Their reproductive cycle is tied to the environment in which they live. Understanding how honey bees reproduce is very important to beekeepers. We strive to ensure that our hives have all the resources necessary to be strong and productive. This mean a good mated queens and healthy workers to take care of her.