The queen is the most important part of the honeybee colony. She is responsible for laying all the eggs and only needs to mate once in order to lay eggs for the rest of her life. She can lay up to a million eggs in her lifetime.
When new eggs are laid, the workers select a few larvae to become queens. They feed these larvae special royal jelly. The royal jelly has special nutrients and vitamins that enable the queen to grow faster and to have a different appearance to the other workers.
Once a queen has killed any rival queens she then flies out of the hive in search of a drone to mate with. She then returns to lay eggs. Some queens live for as long as five years.