Why Hives Turn Against Their Queens

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0:00A honeybee hive might seem like a peaceful utopia,

0:03but in reality, it’s buzzing with internal conflict between warring factions.

0:08And the biggest conflict is between the queen and the worker bees.

0:12Hi, I’m Cameron, and this is MinuteEarth.

0:15There are three types of bees in a hive: the queen,

0:17who lays all the eggs, her daughters – the worker bees – and her sons – the drones.

0:22From the queen’s perspective, both workers and drones are valuable.

0:25She needs daughters to run the hive, find food, nurse the larvae, and even feed her.

0:30But she also needs sons to pass along her genes by mating with other queens.

0:35So it makes sense for a queen bee to

0:37lay as many eggs of both types – workers and drones – as she can.

0:41But the worker bees are the ones actually caring for those eggs,

0:44and their priorities are way different; they’d benefit from more sisters to share the workload.

0:49What’s more, because of the weird way honeybee genetics works, which, by the way,

0:52we made a whole other video about already, workers share about 75% of their genes with each other,

0:58only 50% with the queen, and a mere 25% with the drones; in other words, it's genetically

1:04beneficial for workers to favor their sisters over their much more distantly-related brothers.

1:09So they preferentially feed female larvae, leaving male larvae to

1:13beg for scraps – which aren’t always enough to keep them alive. Sometimes,

1:17workers will even kill drone larvae to free up food and care for more workers.

1:21So even though the queen is in charge of producing offspring, the workers ultimately

1:26control the sex ratio of the hive, and they make sure that it’s producing mostly females;

1:31as a result, honeybee workers can outnumber drones by a un-bee-lieveable ten to one.

1:36In other communal insects – like termites – where workers,

1:39soldiers and royalty can be male or female, workers don’t give any preferential treatment;

1:44these species’ sex ratios end up much more balanced.

1:47But honeybees’ worker-queen conflict goes much deeper than just spoiling sisters.

1:52Workers are also constantly keeping tabs on the queen’s health, and as soon as her egg-laying

1:57slows down, they start feeding one of their baby sisters a special formula that

2:01triggers her ovaries to start developing – this makes her a potential new queen.

2:05In order to keep her crown, the old queen has to constantly find

2:09and kill these queens-to-be before they grow up.

2:11And if one does, two things can happen.

2:14The workers might gang up on the old queen and assassinate her –Julius Caesar style–

2:18or, the hive might fragment, with a ton of workers swearing fealty to

2:22their new sister-queen and flying off to start a new hive with her.

2:25In either case, some, if not all, workers are supplanting their own mother with a

2:30sister they’re more closely-related to, so that she can pass on their shared genes.

2:35But while things will be great for the new queen for a while,

2:39her daughters might eventually decide to get rid of her too.

2:41So while it might seem awesome to be the Queen Bee, the reality can really sting.

2:50Bees are awesome, but like many other important pollinators, they are rapidly disappearing.

2:55The good news is we can actually help: that’s why we joined Planet Wild.

2:59Every month, we, as a community, fund a mission to restore our planet. We love that

3:04they tackle problems with very specific goals and show the results on their Youtube channel.

3:08Like, how they helped save the habitat of Monarch butterflies in Mexico. If

3:12you want to make a difference in nature, consider joining us over at Planet Wild.

3:16You can give whatever amount you like and the first 100 people to

3:19sign up using our code MinuteEarth1 will get their first month paid for by us.

3:23Just scan this QR code or click the link in the description. And

3:26there's no catch here – you can cancel anytime.

3:29If you want to see Planet Wild in action, check out their butterfly mission here.