What happens to a bee colony if they are separated from their queen?

September 21st, 2008 | by beekeeper |
beekeeper
Laura L asked:


Today a beekeeper came and extracted some bees from our yard but, he left a large number of them behind. I was wondering what is going to happen to the remaining bees. Are they going to die without her? Will they starve or will they find another colony or another queen?

beekeeping
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  1. 2 Responses to “What happens to a bee colony if they are separated from their queen?”

  2. By sharkblock on Sep 21, 2008 | Reply

    Yes they will die, but before that they will just wander aimlessly.

  3. By Mark G on Sep 23, 2008 | Reply

    If there are larva/eggs sufficiently young enough the workers can use these eggs to develope a new queen. The worker bees produce a special food called Royal Jelly which causes a regular egg/larva to develop int a queen. The larva is only fed Royal Jelly and this causes it to develope into a queen instead of a worker. The Workers also make a larger cell in which to grow the new queens to accomodate the larger size of a queen.

    Several queens are developed at the same time. The first one to hatch will then go arround and kill and remaining undeveloped / unhatched queens.

    If a new queen cannot be developed the hive will eventually die off. Bees that try to join a new hive will be killed by the Guard bees at the entrance to the hive. If a bee from another hive enters the hive it will be allowed to enter and drop off its pollen and nectar and then will be killed when it leaves. (Sometimes a bee gets lost and lands in the wrong hive)

    Beekeepers move hives from one location to another. To minimize stranding bees the move is done at night when the bees have returned to the hive.

    EDIT:
    If the Bee Keep took all of the honey comb and you are talking about some bees just flying about then Yes these bees will starve and die off. The eggs required to grown a new queen are in some of the cells within the honey comb.
    Honey comb cells are used to store food(Honey and Pollen) and are used to grow larva.

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