Page 116 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

114 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

Preparations Before the Bees Set off on Their Journey

The first phase of swarming comes at the beginning of spring,
when bees start building cells for drones. Since it takes longer for
these males to grow (queens develop from egg to adult in 16
days, workers in 21 and males in 24), their combs need to be
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ready by early April. It’s worth noting that the cells for the males are pre-
pared before the queen’s mandibular pheromone is entirely exhausted.
That’s because under normal circumstances, the workers need to prepare
queen cells when the levels of this pheromone go down. Nevertheless, the
worker bees start building male cells, and the drones hatch out in early
May, which explains why the cells for the males are readied.
As we know, males can search for the queen two weeks after they
emerge. Unless the drones can find a queen to mate with, their existence at
this point will be meaningless. Therefore, the queen needs to be ready for
her mating flight at this time. If the workers are late in preparing the cells
for the males, either the queen will fail to mate, or the process will be de-
layed. Since the queen cannot start laying eggs until after she mates, this
will represent a threat to the colony.
The old queen, who does possess the ability to lay eggs, leaves the hive
long before the new one emerges. This situation, which may appear very
confused at first glance, is resolved by the workers with perfect timing.
At the same time that the workers begin to construct new queen cells,
they oblige the old queen to abandon the egg-laying process, because the
time to migrate has come and necessary preparations must be made.
Therefore, workers start feeding the old queen less royal jelly. The reduced
level of this foodstuff slows or halts her egg-laying. But there is another
reason for restricting the food given to the queen. In order for her to leave
the colony with the swarm that will accompany her, it’s vital that she not
be too bulky.
This method employed by the workers soon bears fruit, and the queen
starts to move about more quickly. Within a short time, she becomes as
mobile as the other bees. 93