Even a novice beekeeper will always distinguish the uterus from the working bee. It is absolutely easy to do. This main female in the hive, living much longer than ordinary bees. It is two, and sometimes three times larger in size and, unlike the latter, has a complete reproductive system. The strength of the family directly depends on how fertile it is.
In the hive, it performs one single function - it produces eggs, from which drones and working individuals are then hatched. For one summer period alone, she can postpone them up to 120 - 200 thousand. The uterus of the bee is invariably located in the hive and leaves it only to meet with drones. An interesting fact is that it can retain seminal fluid inside itself for a long period of time, using it gradually to lay more and more eggs.
It is especially productive in the first 2 years of its life. All the time she lays her eggs, a specially appointed retinue takes care of her - working bees. Replacement of uterus is usually done in the third year, however, of course, only if they reduce their productivity. You must first inspect the hive. A young producer lays eggs in all cells in a row. Old or sick misses them. If this is noticed, the manufacturer must be replaced.
The uterus of the bee can lay only two types of eggs - fertilized, from which the working individuals and other uterus are obtained, and unfertilized, from which drones subsequently emerge. Worker bees clean it and feed it with pollen and milk. Approaching the cell, the uterus directs the abdomen into it and lays a small oblong egg. However, it always makes a preliminary inspection - how well the future larva home has been cleaned.
Sometimes it happens that the uterus of a bee, whose photo can be seen below, dies. The beekeeper himself is most often to blame for this. He can crush her when examining the hive or, holding the frame not above him, drop the uterus on the ground, where she dies after a short period of time. In this case, the bees after 6 to 8 hours select several larvae and begin to intensively feed them milk. The cells in which they develop, expand and build on.
A queen bee grown in this way is called fistulous. In most cases, such producers are in no way inferior to swarm ones. However, in the event that the bees choose not a one-day, but a three-four-day larva, a poor quality uterus will be obtained from it. The family can suffer greatly from this. Meanwhile, if desired, the hive can be freed from potentially low-quality queens. To do this, remove all the queen cells that were sealed within four days after laying.
The moment of the beginning of the conclusion by the bees of the new producer should be tried not to miss. The fact is that a four-day uterus of a bee will come out faster and immediately destroy all one-day ones. Only in a very strong family will workers not allow her this. In this case, swarming will occur and the worst uterus will fly away with the swarm. The producer flies out of the hive several times until she mates with drones.
This does not happen only if the weather is rainy. With a duration of more than 20 days, the uterus begins to lay only empty eggs. It is easy to distinguish the drone cells from the cells of the working bees: their lid is convex. Such a uterus, which is also called a drone, will need to be replaced as soon as possible.