HoneyBee

My friend told me that her father raised bees when she was young, their family got rid of the bees when she was 11 so she didn't know much about them, and I had a lot of questions as she was telling me what she did know.  So my research today is on the Honey Bee.  There is so much about bees I could probably study them all week, or all month, but I'm just going to focus on a one, after all, I do still have a baby to take care of.

 What's the deal with the Queen Bee?
The Queen is the only fertile bee in the swarm. She's incredibly important to the rest of the swarm for this reason, she lays all the eggs. 

A queen is made when the swarm becomes very large and they decide it's time to create a new colony, at that time the queen lays a few eggs in queen cups (see picture above), at which point the larva are fed exclusively something called royal jelly, a protein rich substance excreted from the heads of the worker bees.  All larva are fed royal jelly for a couple days, but the queen larva are fed it exclusively.  Being fed the royal jelly makes the queen larva sexually mature and fertile. 
When it's time for the queen bee to mate, she mates with about 16 drone (male) bees and stores up their sperm in a spermatheca (?) and then releases the sperm for 2-7 years (her queenly lifetime) onto the laid eggs.  Isn't that fascinating?  
I also learned that all worker bees are female, and only females have stingers because the stinger is actually an ovipositor (egg laying organ).  And the worker bee does die if it stings you, there are little barbs on their stinger that stick into the stung individual and when the bee pulls out the stinger stays in and kills the bee.  However, the queen bee's stinger is not barbed, so she can sting as many times as she wants. 

In short, Bees are magnificent, and I'm grateful for them.