What a royal bedchamber provides the queen bee

Honeybees (Apis spp.) are famous for their architectural abilities and the remarkably consistent honeycomb that they make. The bulk of their nest is made of hexagonal cells arranged in 3D parallel sheets of honeycomb1,2. Workers (which are always female) build this comb from wax secreted beneath their abdomen and use the comb to store food and rear young. Two sizes of hexagonal cells are built: smaller ones for rearing workers, and larger ones for rearing drones, the reproductive males3. Workers build a third type of cell specifically for rearing queens, the reproductive females, and these cells buck the trend in several ways — they are not hexagonal, they protrude downwards rather than being oriented horizontally and workers build them only when rearing new queens. Writing in Nature, Fang et al.4 reveal the importance of these homes for queen bees.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01580-y

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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.

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