Identifying Queen Bees: Honey Bees, Virgin Queens, Thorax, Abdomen And Piping Noise

For millennia, people have associated honey with luxuriance and wealth. Since as far back into the annals of history as when Moses sought to find the "land of milk and honey" for the Israelites, people have revered honey as a precious commodity, and not unduly so. As such, the honey bee holds a special place in the insect world, a much more respected position than the stock housefly or wasp. A critical element of the honey bee's success is its monarch, the queen bee, and so for those hoping to enrich the world with honey, identifying queen bees is an important step in the process.

Identifying queen bees proves difficult even to the most practiced beekeepers, unless the queen is in isolation. One way of identifying queen bees in comparison to drone bees is the abdomen length. Next to a drone, the queen's abdomen extends considerably further. Nonetheless, given the standard milieu of a queen bee involves tens of thousands of bees in one place, identifying queen bees in said setting using only the aforementioned technique proves difficult and inefficient. When identifying queen bees, beekeepers tend to use car model paint or some other safe form of paint to mark the thorax of the queen. The color does not make much difference to the amateur beekeeper, though professionals use a six-color scheme to mark queen bees to indicate what year the bee hatched. So long as the beekeeper only uses a moderately sized paint dab on the bee, it does not interfere with its life in any way besides aiding in identifying queen bees and allowing the keeper to better maintain the hive.

Another means of identifying queen bees involves piping, a vibratory communication system distinct to queen honey bees. Generally only used when multiple queens inhabit the same hive, a point of conflict, queens manage to "pipe" by keeping their wings closed while also activating their flight motor. This then projects the sound by rubbing against a bee's thorax. A virgin queen, one that has not yet mated with the drones that will provide the sperm she will store and use throughout her life, will make the signal while in its queen cell, a communication termed "quacking." Besides the virgin queen and her quacking, the free-roaming queens "toot." Both types use piping as a means of identifying queen bees in competition with them in the hive, especially when a queen emerges from its cell and seeks out other newly emerging queens it will sting to death. Either way, both quacking and tooting offer beekeepers a means of identifying queen bees and setting up a better bee hive as a result.

Using the above information, beekeepers and casual observers may learn an easy means of identifying queen bees. Getting a better comprehension of the honey bee by identifying queen bees and the significance of the species as a whole offers a glimpse into the process of creating the highly venerated fruit of their labor, a true delicacy of biblical proportions.


Sources:
Koning, Ross E. "Honeybee Biology". Plant Physiology Website. 1994. 14 August 2007. http://plantphys.info/plants_human/bees/bees.html.

"Queen Bee." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. 15 August 2007. 16 August 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee.

Simpson, J. "The Mechanism of Honey-Bee Queen Piping." Journal of Comparative Physiology a: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology. 48.3 (1964): 277-282. 14 Aug. 2007. http://www.springerlink.com/content/v4253378h4h330 12/.

Tew, James E. "Honey Bee Queen Management Techniques." OARDC Honey Bee Lab, Ohio State University. 14 Aug. 2007. http://beelab.osu.edu/factsheets/sheets/2162.html.