Page 71 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

Harun Yahya 69

the queen’s average speed, this means one
fertilized egg laid every minute.
It has been calculated that a single queen
may lay over one and a half million eggs
56
within a year. Given her normal life span, this
means that a single queen will eventually lay millions
of eggs. In addition, the total weight of the eggs laid by
the queen during one day is equivalent to that of her
own body!
When the queen is about to lay an egg, she first puts
her head into the comb cell and inspects it. Having re-
assured herself that the cell is empty and suitable for
having an egg laid in it, she projects her abdomen over
it. She then lays a long egg carefully into the bottom of
The queen lays eggs
the cell. As soon as the process is over, she moves on to
in newly-cleaned
next empty cell. The queen repeats this at least 1,500 cells.
times in a day. Despite the tiring nature of the process, she
displays the same care and attention every time she lays an egg. 57

How the Queen Determines the Gender

of the Other Bees
We have already mentioned that the queen can determine the gender of
the other bees yet unborn. She does this by opening and closing the mouth
of the spermatheca in which the sperm are stored, and which is connected
by a small duct to the oviduct—the tube through which the eggs pass from
the ovary. When the queen wishes to lay a female egg, she releases a
minute amount of sperm from the spermatheca into the duct, to fertilize
the egg. The egg will be fertilized only if she releases sperm. If no sperm
emerges from the spermatheca, the egg will remain unfertilized. As a re-
sult of this process, entirely under the queen’s control, female bees emerge
from the fertilized eggs and male bees, or drones, from the unfertilized
ones. 58

Adnan Oktar