You Think You're The Queen Bee?

I can't tell you how many women have said to me "well of course, I'd be the queen bee"!

My answer often surprises them! "You wouldn't want to be!"

While the queen is without doubt the most important bee in the hive - it's not a job you would want!

The queen is just an egg laying machine. In summer, she lays more than her body weight in eggs every single day - that's 2,000+ eggs, every day!

She does nothing but lay eggs! She doesn't even have a stomach to feed herself. Which is why whenever you move a queen bee any distance, she needs attendants to feed and water her! She doesn't even clean herself, because that would interrupt her egg laying!

You could argue she's the only bee that goes on an orgy flight, mating with many many local male bees! But she only does this once. After that it's a lifetime in a dark hive .... laying eggs!

The only time she'll see the light of day is if the colony swarm with her (or I guess the beekeeper comes along and stares at her!)

After two to three years of being an egg production machine, when she starts to fail they will just make a new one and kill her off!

So I can say with some certainty ... you really don't want to be the queen bee!