คำบรรยาย (52)
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.
