Queen Retinue
Inspection
Jane opens up the hive to inspect the brood frames for any signs of swarm preparation and looks for queen cells. She handles the frames slowly and gently. The bees carry on doing what they need to do despite the bright light and disturbance. Here we see worker bees touching the queen with their antennae which are specialised sensory organs involved with touch, smell and taste.
Queen Substance
The workers are touching the queen to obtain some of her queen substance. This is a chemical called a pheromone with an official moniker of 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid. In this situation, the workers will be sharing the scent with other bees in the colony and this reassures them all that they have a strong well functioning queen. If the colony is over crowded the pheromone will not circulate efficiently and this usually stimulates swarm preparation and queen cell production. Drones on mating flights are also attracted to the queen by this pheromone.