Long live the queen bee ... but if she doesn't, the colony will prevail
In a honey bee colony, the queen bee rules while her daughter workers do nothing but work. So what happens when the queen dies? Are there worker riots, with the colony dissolving into a chaotic mess?
Surprisingly, no. In a study published in the journal Current Biology on Friday, Marianne Peso and her colleagues showed that while queenless bees do act a little more selfishly, they continue to work together to keep the colony going.
