When a queen bee dies, her daughters select a lucky egg and feed it with royal jelly in hope of creating a suitable replacement. But the egg doesn’t always hatch. When that happens, the bee colony enters a state of anarchy, and a third of the workers starts laying eggs and seem able to juggle the challenges of work (collecting pollen) and motherhood.
CAS news release, Sept. 29, 2015
CAS Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden studies social behavior of bees losing their leader