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.
Vespula pensylvanica
Colonies are initiated by the queen. After emerging from the diapause when winter ends, the fertilized queen searches for a nest site. When it is located, a small nest is formed. The queen continues to forage for construction materials and food until four to seven workers have emerged. At this point, the queen focuses solely on laying eggs and the nest continues to expand. Between August and September, males and queens are produced, which then leave the nest and mate. The nest begins to decline around this time. The males eventually die, and the inseminated queen begins diapause. The inseminated queen is the only member of the colony to survive winter. Longevity of the workers varied with colony activity and development, with the lifespan of the earliest-born workers averaging 22 days and the latest-born workers averaging 40 days.