September 13, 2016

Did you know that any female bee larvae can become queen? In fact, the selection process is pretty random. When it comes time to choosing a new ruler for the hive, worker bees select several female larvae and provide them with large amounts of royal jelly. Future drones and worker bees are only given a small amount of royal jelly. They are fed the secretion as it's produced. However the future queen bees are bathed in it and their royal jelly contains royalactin. The royalactin turns on the genes that will have the larvae develop into a fertile females.