Queen Bee being attacked!

MonkeyDoo

Was walking in the park today and looking on the pavement came across an unusual sight.

3 bees rolling around the path. One bee was massive about 3 to 5 times the size of the other 2 bees(Am guessing this is a queen bee). One of the smaller bees was rooting around under the wings of the "queen bee". The second bee was towards the rear of the Queen struggling around but was not sure if it was copulating.

I could see no hive nearby but were large trees all along the path however.

Question....what was happening here! Was it a Queen bee having sex with 2 drones? Or was it the Drones killing an old Queen after a new Queen was born in the hive?

NeuroCat

There are any number of things which could've been happening:

1) The queen may have been copulating with the drones as it were.
2) I doubt the queen was being attacked, as it is rare for any bee's to attack a queen. (Usually only in cases when the incumbent queen is old and frail, or if a new queen is introduced and has not had enough time to gain control of the hive via pheromones.)
3) It might not have been an actual queen, as it is extremely rare to see a queen bee outside of the hive. It may have been a large drone accompanied by 2 worker bee's.

I'm by no means an expert, but I have studied their behavioral model as part of my degree.

Capt'n Midnight

Would it have been a bumble bee by any chance ?

I don't think queen bees are very much larger than others.

aidoh

Maybe they were setting up a new site for a nest and fighting to see who becomes the future queen.