Photo of the Day

The queen and her court

Monday 19 October 2026

Close-up of honey bees crowding dark comb around a larger, longer queen with a red paint dot on her back — Photograph · Date not recorded

Africanized worker bees crowd around a European queen, who has been marked with a dot of paint so researchers can find her. USDA scientists took this while studying Africanized honey bees.

Fun facts

At her peak, a queen can lay up to about 2,000 eggs a day. source ↗
Workers tell each other where flowers are with a waggle dance: the angle of the dance gives the direction, and its length gives the distance. source ↗
A single worker makes about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. source ↗
Bees see ultraviolet light, and many flowers have ultraviolet patterns we can't see that guide bees to the nectar. source ↗

Image: Scott Bauer / USDA Agricultural Research Service
Licence: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons