Under normal conditions, the worker bees do not construct any cells for queens. The presence of the queen in the hive prevents this. Only in exceptional circumstances does this situation change. To understand the conditions under which the workers will begin to prepare a new royal cell when a queen is already present, we should examine the secretion emitted by the queen.

All of the worker bees in the hive are female, yet unlike the queen, they are unable to lay eggs since their reproductive organs are not developed. This was an interesting cause for speculation among scientists for many years. We have already seen how the female larvae emerge as either queens or workers due to how much royal jelly they are fed during the larval stage. In fact, the workers too have reproductive organs when they are first hatched. Yet these never develop and become suitable for egg-laying. Scientists researched the reasons for this and eventually found the answer they were looking for.

The answer lies in a chemical secreted by the queen, which chemical not only informs the other bees that she, the queen, is alive and well, but also sterilizes all the other females in the colony. This chemical from the queen's mandibular glands also allows members of the colony to recognize one another.61 The formula of this chemical is:

Another effect of this signal on the bees is it restrains them from constructing another royal cell for as long as the substance is present in the hive.

These diagrams show how the pheromones released by the queen are perceived by the messenger workers and distributed to the other workers. They disseminate the pheromone by touching one another and cause internal pheromone translocation. The queen , with worker bees waiting around her to receive the pheromones she releases A worker bee with the queen’s pheromone on it Worker bees distributing the pheromone by touching one another The queen’s pheromone will soon be translocated internally into the worker bees’ bodies.

This substance also ensures discipline in the hive. Therefore, the queen needs to constantly produce enough of it in order for the hive to carry out all its everyday functions. This chemical released by the queen needs to reach all the bees in the hive, and the necessary level of queen substance for each worker has been established as an average of 0.1µg per day.62 It is the queen who maintains order in the hive, though it's of course impossible for her to take a personal interest in all its tens of thousands of individual member bees.

The queen substance’s formula (Thomas A. Sebeok, Animal Communication, p. 222.)

The queen substance is constantly spread through the hive by up to a dozen bees that are always around her and care for her. These lick up the chemical from the queen's body and transmit it to the other bees during food transfer, which takes place by mouth. During this process, the odor released by the queen is quickly transmitted to all other members of the colony. This means that all of the colony's members share a common odor, distinguishing them from members of other colonies.

Any reduction in this secretion sets the workers into action, because they take it as a signal that that their queen has grown old, or that their colony has become excessively large. In either case, the workers need to take a number of measures.63

The upper section of this graphical representation shows part of the duties of the worker bees and, in the lower section, the effect of the queen bee on the workers.

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• 62. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies, p.96.
• 63. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, p.140.

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