Page 69 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

Harun Yahya 67

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one. Generally speaking, when a new queen appears in the hive, the old
queen has long since departed it. That the queen is so determined to kill
her rivals is of great importance in terms of the order in the hive, because
the existence of only one queen in the hive is essential for the establish-
ment of discipline.
As she emerges from her cell, the new queen cannot replace the old
queen, because she has not yet begun to lay eggs. In order to do so, she
first needs to mate. Yet mating never takes place inside the hive. The
queen soon leaves the hive and looks for male bees—drones—to fertilize
her. 48
There are two circumstances under which the queen leaves the hive:
her mating flight and swarming time. Apart from these two occasions, the
queen will never leave the hive. Before departing on the mating flight, she
constantly moves around the hive. On days 5 and 6, she visits the hive en-
trance frequently. The following day or the day after, she leaves on short
flights to learn the location of the hive and to familiarize herself with its
surroundings. These flights start out with short duration, but become
longer as the days go by. 49

The Queen’s Mating Flight
The queen flies off from the hive to mate, accompanied by a group of
workers. Shortly afterward, she leaves her escort of bees and flies alone to
where male drones are present. When she comes within a certain distance
of that area she starts to release a pheromone which allows the drones to
locate her.
This journey, known as the mating flight and as a result of which the
males become aware of her presence, typically takes place 10 days after
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the queen emerges from the pupa. The queen’s reproductive organs con-
sist of two ovaries which produce her eggs, and a small receptacle at her
abdomen known as the “spermatheca,” in which the male’s sperm is
stored. This receptacle will play a most crucial role in the lives of bees that
constitute the future members of the colony. The mating of the drone and

Adnan Oktar