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New Queen Bee Crowned At Academy of Natural Sciences

By Justin Udo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University welcomes a new queen honey bee to their hive.

The Queen is just a month-and-a-half old, but she's already been hard at work laying new eggs. Earlier this week she was marked with a blue dot to show what year she came to power.

"By the color on the back of the queen you can tell how old she is," says Jim Bob, the bee keeper at the Academy.

 

 

He says each year, the color of the dot changes for the queens who come into power so keepers can track the progression of the hive:

"A queen can live for several years. Usually after a year or two, she starts to slow down and then they'll naturally replace her."

During her tenure, one queen can give birth to up to 40,000 bees.

Bob says the queen whose reign can go for three to five years usually reproduces the most in her first two years.

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