The Ardent Swarm

by Yamen Manai

The art of breeding queens lies in making the worker bees think that their empress has disappeared. Panic-stricken upon sensing her absence from the hive, they rapidly breed new queens. They feed a dozen larvae royal jelly, the ultimate honey, a rare substance created solely for this grand occasion. Though a worker bee will make an entire spoonful of honey in her lifetime, she will produce no more than a bead of royal jelly, and that only when necessary. Any larva fed on royal jelly becomes a queen. When several contenders emerge from their opercula, they fight for supremacy of the colony until one remains. As soon as the new monarch is crowned, she roams the frames, making her way among her subjects and releasing calming scents to restore harmony in the hive. Later, she’ll unfurl her wings for the nuptial flight. She will be followed by a cloud of drones, the hive’s only males, wanting to fertilize her. The winners of this contest are few and pay for their glory with their lives. Once the queen returns to the colony, she will lay as many as two thousand eggs a day, thereby ensuring her legacy.