Lesson 13: New Queens

Why colonies raise new queens, and how a new queen gets mated

Workers won't raise new queens while they have a healthy, laying queen. Her scent holds them back (lesson 11). A colony raises new queens for just three reasons:

1. Swarming. The colony is crowded and getting ready to split (lesson 12).
2. Supersedure. The workers decide their queen is failing and replace her.
3. Emergency. The queen dies or disappears suddenly, and the workers must make a new one from whatever young larvae they have.

A beekeeper who knows which is which can tell a lot about a colony from its queen cells (lesson 37).

Supersedure: quietly replacing a failing queen

Workers build supersedure cells when the queen dies, when her pheromone output drops, or when she starts to fail (for example, laying poorly or unevenly).

To make a queen quickly, workers take a young worker larva and switch it onto the queen's diet of royal jelly (lesson 7). Timing matters:

• If they switch a larva that's young enough (under about 3 days old), the new queen develops normally.
• If they have to use an older larva, the queen is likely to be inferior.

Because the youngest larvae are usually at the edge of the brood, supersedure cells are often found on the face of the comb, around the edge of the brood area, while swarm cells are usually toward the bottom of the comb. There are exceptions, so use this as a clue, not a rule.

Supersedure is normal. When a colony is replacing a failing queen, it's often best to let the bees do it themselves. Expect a break in brood rearing of two to three weeks while the new queen emerges, mates and starts laying.

Emergency queens

If a queen is killed suddenly (for example, crushed during an inspection), workers start raising emergency queens, usually within a few hours. They build the cells out from existing cells that hold young worker larvae, feeding them large amounts of royal jelly. Like supersedure cells, emergency cells are usually toward the middle of the comb. Lesson 43 covers the queenless colony.

From queen cell to laying queen

1. Emerging. A queen emerges about 16 days after the egg was laid (lesson 7). When several queen cells are developing, they're in a race: the first queen out usually finds and kills her rivals in their cells, or they fight when more than one emerges, until only one remains.

2. Maturing. A new virgin queen spends about 5 to 8 days in the hive while nurse bees feed her and her body gets ready for mating. A virgin queen is slim and fast, and hard to find on the comb.

3. Mating flights. She then makes one or more mating flights, flying out to places where drones from many colonies gather, called drone congregation areas. There she mates in the air with many drones, about 15, over several flights across a few days. All her mating happens in the first couple of weeks of her life. Drones die soon after mating.

4. A lifetime supply. She stores the sperm in an organ called the spermatheca and uses it for the rest of her life. Each time she lays an egg she can choose to fertilize it (making a female, a worker or queen) or not (making a male, a drone).

5. Laying. After mating she returns home, starts laying, and never leaves the hive again unless the colony swarms. Her abdomen swells as her ovaries develop, workers gather around her in a retinue, and she becomes the calm, long-bodied mated queen you'll learn to spot in lesson 36.

A queen can live for several years, but her laying usually slows after her first year or two. That's why beekeepers watch queen performance and sometimes replace queens themselves (lesson 45).

What to remember

• Colonies raise new queens for swarming, supersedure (replacing a failing queen) or emergency (sudden loss).
• Supersedure and emergency cells are usually toward the middle of the comb; swarm cells toward the bottom.
• A queen needs larvae under about 3 days old; older larvae make poorer queens.
• A new queen matures 5–8 days, mates in the air with about 15 drones at drone congregation areas, stores the sperm for life, then lays and stays home.

Quick check

1. Name the three reasons a colony raises a new queen.
2. Where does a queen mate?
3. How does a queen decide whether an egg becomes a female or a male?

Adapted from: UF/IFAS Extension, Swarm Control for Managed Beehives (ENY-160/IN970, 2022) and European Honey Bee (EENY568/IN1005); Penn State Extension, An Introduction to Queen Honey Bee Development (Anton & Grozinger, updated 2025); University of Arkansas, Complete Beekeeping Short Course, Part 4; Delaplane, K. S., Honey Bees and Beekeeping (UGA Extension Bulletin 1045, rev. 2017).

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.