How do bees decide on a queen?

Answer 1

There can only be one queen in a hive.

If a hive becomes too crowded, the workers will prepare several queen brood cells and the queen will lay an egg in each. The workers will cover the egg with royal jelly -- this is what makes the difference between the larva developing into a queen rather than a worker.

After this, the queen and roughly half of the workers will leave the hive and look for somewhere else to form a hive. This is a swarm.

Eventually one of the queen cells will break open and a new queen will emerge. The first thing she will do is search out the other queen cells and sting them to kill the other developing queens. If two queens should emerge at the same time, they will fight until one is dead.

A few days later, the new queen will leave the hive on a mating flight, followed by the drones. After mating she will return to the hive and not leave it again unless with another swarm.

Answer 2

Bees decide on a queen by feeding a selected larva a special diet of royal jelly, which helps her develop into a queen bee. This process involves the activity of worker bees collectively choosing which larva to nurture as the queen, based on specific pheromones and genetic factors. Once the queen bee emerges, she will establish her dominance within the hive.