The queen honey bee is known to mate with multiple drones, and can produce over a million offspring in its lifetime. Its presence is vital to the growth and survival of a beehive. This reference book is a detailed guide to queen honey bees. The book starts by providing deep insights into the fascinating biologyof the queen honey bees, their morphometric features, developmental synchronicity, genetics, hormones, pheromones, colonial organization and swarming. Further, the book describes artificial queen rearing techniques that facilitate healthy bee colony growth and increase apiculture productivity. The book equips readers with all the knowledge they need to know about queen bee development, their role in the colony and improving the health of their colony. Key Features- 14 reader-friendly chapters that comprehensively present information about queen honey bees- Comprehensive coverage about queen bee biology, including their physical morphology, genetics, proteomics, development and behavior (including worker and drone interactions)- Information about the role of queen bees in colonial organization and life-cycle events- Practical information that helps to improve bee colony health for research and apiculture (disease mechanisms and control, artificial breeding) The book is an essential primary reference on queen honey bees for biology and entomology students, academicians and researchers at all educational levels. Apiculturists, bee keeping enthusiasts, and general readers interested in honey bees can also benefit from the breadth of information presented.

Honey bees have been described as exceptionally clever, well-organized, mutualistic, collaborative, busy, efficient--in short a perfect society. While the colony is indeed a marvel of harmonious, efficient organization, it also has a considerable dark side. Authors Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe write about the life history of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, highlighting conflict rather than harmony, failure rather than success, from the perspective of the individual worker in the colony. When one looks carefully, the honey bee colony is far from being perfect. As with any complex social system, honeybee societies are prone to error, robbery, cheating, and social parasitism. Nevertheless, the hive gets by remarkably well in spite of many seemingly odd biological features. The perfection that is perceived to exist in the honeybee's social organization is the function of a focus on the colony as a whole rather than exploring the idiosyncrasies of its individual members. The Dark Side of the Hive thus focuses on the role of the individual rather than that of the collective. Moritz and Crewe dissect the various careers that individual male and female honey bees can take and their role in colony organization. Competition between individuals using both physical and chemical force drives colonial organization. This book deals with individual mistakes, maladaptations and evolutionary dead-ends that are also part of the bees' life. The story told about these dark sides of the colony spans the full range of biological disciplines ranging from genomics to systems biology.

The introduction and spread of the African honey bee and its hybrids in the New World has received substantial public and scientific attention. In this book the available scientific information concerning the identification, biology and management of the bee are reviewed.