How Bees Choose a Queen...and Get Rid of Her

Opublikowano: 2026-06-27

Today I explore one of the strangest systems in the natural world: how honeybees choose a queen. Every queen bee starts life almost genetically identical to every other female in the hive, yet only one will rule a colony of tens of thousands. In this episode, I dive into the incredible science behind queen bees, worker bees, royal jelly, pheromones, supersedure, bee colonies, honeybee reproduction, and hive behavior. Along the way, we'll uncover why workers—not the queen herself—determine who becomes royalty, why only one female gets to reproduce, what happens when a queen dies, and why...