Beekeeping
The queen is the only sexually mature female in the hive and all of the female worker bees and male drones are her offspring. The queen may live for up to three years or more and may be capable of laying half a million eggs or more in her lifetime. At the peak of the breeding season, late spring to summer, a good queen may be capable of laying 3,000 eggs in one day, more than her own body weight. This would be exceptional however; a prolific queen might peak at 2,000 eggs a day, but a more average queen might lay just 1,500 eggs per day. The queen is raised from a normal worker egg, but is fed a larger amount of royal jelly than a normal worker bee, resulting in a radically different growth and metamorphosis. The queen influences the colony by the production and dissemination of a variety of pheromones or "queen substances". One of these chemicals suppresses the development of ovaries in all the female worker bees in the hive and prevents them from laying eggs.
Bombus frigidus
Like most bumblebees, "B. frigidus" has a eusocial seasonal colony in which the queen lives for a year. During the winter, the queen will stay in a small chamber in the ground, which she had previously found or dug for herself, called a hibernaculum. As soon as the snow melts
around mid May, the queen will begin to search for a nest site. "B. frigidus" queens tend to leave their hibernacula earlier than other arctic bees. Also, arctic bees have ovaries which develop faster than those of temperate bees. This allows arctic bees to start their colonies faster, which is necessary due to the shorter time between winters in arctic regions. The queens fly close to the
ground, often stopping to examine a potential nesting site. While the queen is searching, she will not carry any pollen. Once a suitable site is found, she will begin to collect pollen to make a brood clump and feed the brood. She will also start to build a wax cup, called a honey pot, to store the pollen and nectar. When the nest is ready, she will lay eggs on the brood clump and incubate them with her abdomen. The queen will remain in the nest until she needs more food or until the eggs hatch. The eggs will hatch about four days after being laid, but it takes about four weeks for the first workers to become adults. The colony will continue to grow during the summer, and the queen will continue to produce eggs, rarely leaving the nest. The workers will supply her with nectar, maintain the colony, and help her produce a group of male offspring. New queens are produced shortly thereafter. The reproductive bees will leave the colony to mate around early September. After mating, the males will die and the new queens will obtain nectar for a short time before finding a new hibernaculum
for the winter.