COME THE REVOLUTION

The queen is dead. Love live the queen.

​

The life of a worker bee is very different to a queen. Destined from birth to a far humbler life, they feed the queen and the larvae, keep the hive clean, groom the queen, produce wax and much more.

However, all is not as it seems. In a storyline befitting of Shakespeare himself, it's the workers who ultimately decide the queen's fate.

Whilst catering to her every whim, they are secretly planning her demise, rearing her replacement in a secret chamber in the hive. When the sitting queen comes to the end of her usefulness to the colony or even when the workers simply decide that the new queen is ready, they kill her - smothering her in a feat called 'balling' where they swarm over her, raising her temperature to a fatal level. They then duly remove her carcass and parade the new queen into place.

No throne for the workers, my worker bee is taking a break on an old wooden chair, looking forward to the day when he'll get his revenge for being born without a silver spoon in his mouth.