When one queen survives in a colony, she will go out on a sunny, warm day to mate with 12-15 drones. She will then have enough sperm to lay eggs for approximately 3years. She has only a limited time to mate, and if she is unable to fly because of bad weather and remains unmated, she will become a "drone layer."
Although the name might imply it, a queen has no control over the hive. Her sole function is to serve as the reproducer; she is an "egg laying machine." A good queen of quality stock, well reared with good nutrition and well mated, can lay about 2,000 eggs per day during the spring build-up and live for two or more years. She lays her own weight in eggs every couple of hours and is continuously surrounded by young worker attendants, who meet her every need, giving her food and disposing of her waste. They also lick her body for the pheromones called queen substance, that is shared among all worker bees and inhibits them from laying eggs of their own. Such eggs, laid by an unmated female, could only produce drones.
The Queens life expectancy is as long as the worker bees determine it to be. If the queen is still laying well in her 3 rd year, they will not supersede her.
