Page 69 - The Miracle of the Honeybee
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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
                                            50
            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
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