What is the relationship of the queen bee to all the other bees in the hive?

• A. She is the only bee that is fertile
• B. She lays many eggs
• C. She is the oldest bee
• D. She is a worker bee

Answer: (A)

In a beehive, the queen’s role as the reproductive center defines her relationship to all the other bees. The queen is the one who lays eggs, and those eggs hatch into new bees. Drones are male and don’t lay eggs, and worker bees are female but sterile and don’t reproduce. Because she is the one producing offspring, she is effectively the mother of every bee in the colony. That makes her the only bee that is fertile in terms of creating new bees for the hive. While it’s true she lays many eggs, what best describes her relationship to everyone else is that she is their mother—you're identifying the one who maintains the hive’s population.