Is that how they develop?

Yes, royal jelly is what triggers the full development of the queen. Workers develop up to a certain point during the first 3 or 4 days then are switched to just pollen and honey for their main diet. Queens are fed royal jelly their entire life.

Is it a random selection as to which ones become queens?

Not quite. They only make queens when they are in need of a new one due to the old one getting old or something happens to her. Or when they are ready to swarm they will make a new queen.
They make cells which look like peanut hulls in shape when they are making queens due to swarming. If they have an emergency situation such as the queen dies or is getting too old they will select from worker cells that are less than three or four days old and make those cells bigger to accommodate the queens larger body and just continue to feed those larvae royal jelly. If possible they will select worker cells that are along the bottom of the frames.

Bees are most interesting little creatures indeed.

Indeed they are.

Tee, I think we would have to ask the bees that. I don't think there is any conclusive research as to which particular egg, if any, gets to become a queen. Unless one says that the egg laid in a queen cell is the one chosen to become a queen.If you look closely at the photo of the queen larvae in Mindy's article you can see the larvae are not in the traditional "cells"; the queen "cells" are shaped sort of like a peanut & protrude from the normal surface of the sheet of cells. Generally these cells are only built by the workers when the present queen is getting old or when it is swarming time. The swarm will need a queen when it leaves the colony. At that time (swarming time) the queen will lay eggs in the "peanut cup". The eggs are mol all the same but it is the royal jelly which makes the difference in the resulting bee --- worker, drone or queen. The queen can decide which eggs she fertilizes & drones do not get fertilized; only workers & queens do. MIndy would have to come back on & tell us because I can't remember the exact # of days for each but drones take X days to maturity (from egg to bee) then workers take longer by X days & finally queens take the longest. I want to say queens are 22 days & workers are 18 but I'm not sure.

OOPS I took so long typing that we all cross posted.

Very fascinating Margaret. I did not know about the Royal Jelly. I found the entire article interesting. Another wrinkle in my brain. : )

Very interesting article. The honey bees really are such interesting and valuable little creatures.

Thank you.

You are welcome Lynn and Christine..

Do you all want me to tell you about the different castes of honey bees now or would you like to wait until I publish an article on that?

I would like to wait. That is a big topic and would be great in an article. Love the caste story.

I would like to wait for one of your articles I am learning so much about this from you

Thanks for another good, informative piece!

Glad you are enjoying this article. It gave me fits writing it. Hard to write about something you can't find much information on.

OK I'll wait to tell you all about the bees in a future article.
Just so you all know there won't be one next week as I have a special one that will be published the day before Thanksgiving.

Can't wait for it to be published.
I enjoy these so much.