Page 70 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

68 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

queen takes place on the wing. Following
fertilization, the male generally dies as
the queen bee flies back to the hive.
It has been established that the queen
makes from three to 12 flights during her
mating period, mating with a different
drone each time. Since the sperm from
one male is insufficient to fill her sper-
matheca, she receives sperm from several
51
males. Following each fertilization, the
sperm from all the males is stored to-
gether. The queen will use this sperm ob-
Male bees (drones) waiting for the tained from the mating flights during her
queen to leave on the mating flight 52
life span of 4 to 5 years. There is an aver-
age of 6 million spermatozoa in the spermatheca of a mated queen. 53
Unlike the reproductive cells in many creatures, the male bees’ sperm
can be preserved for years in the queen’s body without decaying or losing
their viability. This is yet another sign of flawless creation in the body of
the bee.
Yet the sperm collected in her body do not carry out the fertilization
themselves. Every stage of the fertilization of the egg is under the queen’s
control. She regulates the fertilization by depositing as much sperm as she
desires from the spermatheca. (This most miraculous process will be ex-
amined in greater detail later in this book.)

A Million Eggs a Year
Some 2 to 3 days after the mating process is finished, the queen begins
to lay her eggs one by one, in a series of cells specially prepared by the
worker bees. She continues the process, non-stop, each year from early
spring to mid-autumn, until the end of her life.
During the laying period, a queen lays from 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day. 54
55
When necessary, she can increase that figure to as high as 3,000. Based on