What happens to insect hives when they lose their queen?

I’m sure you’re all aware of what happened to Queen Chrysalis and the changelings during the S6 finale, so I won’t bore you with a recap you probably heard a billion times already.

What I will bring up however, is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while: What would happen if the outcome of the S6 finale happened to a real-life insect hive?

By that I mean, if a bee/wasp/hornet/ant queen was somehow separated from the rest of the colony (whether by natural causes, human interference, or the rare chance that her subjects switch loyalties) what becomes of her? What will the rest of the hive do with the queen gone?

Well, I’m not sure. They probably would die slowly because of the fact that there’s no queen to make babies. They CLOUD however, make a new queen I think. Also, some ant colonies can have more than one reproducing queen.

@DragonBoi471
When the queen dies, bees convert several larva to new queens. The first one to hatch then kills all the others.

Colonies sometimes also kill their queen. For example when she gets too old or begins to be faulty or makes mistakes in laying eggs.

With bees, the only difference between queens and the rest is how their larva is fed, so stable colonies can make new queens pretty much at will.

The whole process can be a little gruesome though. Being a queen bee doesn’t really make them safe.

Cool! I only really know about the ants’ side.

@14Fan
They cloud have another queen in the works.

@Mighty Aphrodite
Yeah, I’m not sure. Maybe in the future if I remember I’ll ask AntsCanada.

@Ciaran
Alright, now what about wasps and hornets? Anyone know what happens when they no longer have a queen?

@DragonBoi471
If the only difference between a drone and a queen is that species equivalent of royal jelly, then they’re pretty much the same.

Missing your queen, or your queen isn’t doing her job? Make a new one. Got too many queens? Just kill the ones that are the least useful.

Inside of a hive can be a lot like a machine. Things do their jobs, or they’re replaced.