Answers to Blog Questions

I just noticed that blog follower Laura Melkonian has posted a few questions which I will now attempt to answer.

1) Why is there no king bee as well?
Correct, there is no "king bee". The hive is ruled by the queen. When a queen is hatched (more below on that), she sets out on a "maiden voyage" where she flies around for days getting impregnated by drones (males) from other colonies. Then she comes back to the hive and basically never leaves again - she has something like 10,000 fertilized eggs in her at that point, and her job is to start laying! Basically, male bees have no purpose except to fertilize queens. They don't work in the hive or collect nectar/pollen. The worker bees are all females, and they do all of the work. Hmm... sounds familiar...

2) I just read the wikipedia article on bees and it mentions a "no-sting bee." Is it possible to get honey from those bees in our area?
I have never heard of this, but I will ask my beekeeping instructor. I also would caution believing half of the info on wikipedia.

3) Is it true that after a bee stings you, the bee will die?
I believe this is true. The honey bees are very docile and have no intention of stinging. They can get aggravated by people poking around the hive, but they won't attack. They are likely only going to sting if you touch them or squeeze them.

4) How is the queen determined or pre-determined to the hive members?
Answer: ROYAL JELLY. When the hive needs a new queen, either because the queen has died, the workers think the queen is weak, or the hive is about to swarm, they will feed a special concoction called Royal Jelly to the queen larvae. This formula is like steriods or something, and will create a queen instead of a worker. I have no idea how they decide which larvae to feed royal jelly!

5) I read on your blog that the queen has laid a lot more eggs. Are most of the bees the offspring of the queen or do the other bees in the hive reproduce as well?
Only the queen has fertilized eggs, so she is the only one that can lay workers. The workers are essential because they are responsible for building comb, taking care of the queen, feeding larvae, collecting pollen/nectar and making honey. Worker bees can lay unfertilized eggs, which become drones. While a few drones are necessary, a hive with many drone cells (which mine had in June) is a sign of a hive without a queen.