when a queen bee
gets to be
dysfunctional, disinterested, demented
the workers, all the disgruntled femme-bots
who have been quietly nursing her kids
and keeping up the hive,
they give each other a wink
and spring on the queen
Balling up the queen,
they flap their wings incessantly
this raises
the temperature and CO2
to the point that she expires
The new virgin queen
who has been, up until this time,
secretly feeding on the royal jelly
now presents herself as the heir apparent
and decides to throw a lecherous party
to celebrate
The royal jelly is some potent stuff
normal honey is just regurgitated pollen
but jelly royale has some other secretions in it
from the worker bees’ hypopharyngeal glands
there are enzymes in this jelly
that interact with the larvae dna
it will turn off the enzymes that usually turn off ovarian development
thus the new queen becomes THE keeper of the ovary
interesting how food can turn genes on and off. I wonder what kool-aid does?
