Queen substance is a pheromone secreted by the queen that works to calm the hive. It is the chemical message that keeps a colony functioning as a unit. If the queen is removed, the worker bees increase their activity, and become defensive and agitated within 30 minutes. The larvae in the chosen cells must be less than three days old to be able to develop into a queen. These larvae are then literally flooded with royal jelly as their diet.
Royal jelly is composed of mandibular gland secretions and sugars which stimulate feeding.
It is the high quality and large amount of food which leads to the development of a new queen. Most of the eggs laid by the queen are placed in worker cells. These eggs are fertilized and develop into female worker bees which are most common in a hive. Worker bees have wings that are approximately the length of the abdomen, and the workers are smaller than the drone bees. A few of the eggs are placed in slightly larger drone cells.