Most people know that a honeybee hive's activity revolves around one member: the queen. As the only member of the hive capable of reproducing, she is the center of life and the keystone of a hive's health and survival. What you may not know is how a queen bee comes to exist in the first place - she isn't born, but made, by way of a fascinating bit of evolutionary science implemented by social insects all over the world, from bees and wasps, to termites and ants. 

When a colony finds itself in need of a queen for whatever reason, perhaps because the original queen died, aged out of productivity or split off with a portion of the colony in a swarm, the workers - all of whom are female - will select a one- to three-day-old larvae to be their new queen. Queens can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day, and any fertilized larvae under three days old can become a new queen (unfertilized larvae become drones, the only male bees a colony will produce, who are purely for reproductive purposes and largely useless within the hive). 

A bustling hive brood box: uncapped, white larvae are fed by workers until they are capped and ready to pupate into adult bees

Once the potential queen(s) are selected, specialized workers called nurse bees will consume a large quantity of nectar and pollen in order to produce royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion exuded from glands on the sides of the workers' heads. Most larvae are fed a mixture of royal jelly, nectar and pollen, which supports their metamorphosis into the sterile worker bees you're most familiar with. A diet comprised solely of royal jelly, however, will trigger the development of ovaries and the ability to secrete pheromones that only queens possess, which are essential for the social function of the hive. After about 16 days of growth supported by a rich diet of royal jelly, the new queen emerges. If multiple queens are in development or newly-emerged, they will fight for dominance and the weaker ones will be killed, ensuring only the strongest queen will survive. 

Newborn worker bees emerging from their cells, ready to join the colony

After a few days, the new, unmated queen will embark on a mating flight, where she will mate with up to 15 drones in mid-air. She will store the sperm she collects during this single flight for the rest of her life, using it to fertilize the over one million eggs she will lay in her 2-7 year lifespan in order to maintain a healthy colony population of 20,000 to 60,000 bees. 

The queen herself (larger, center) surrounded by a retinue of workers

It's a big responsibility to be the queen bee, but like all other things in a healthy, thriving colony of bees, it truly takes a village - just one more example of why we have so much respect and fascination for these little social pollinators.