Assertion : The honey bee queen copulates only once in her life time. Reason : The honey bee queen can lay fertilized as well as unfertilized eggs.

Queen is the only fertile female in beehive, having immensely developed ovaries. She lives for several successive years laying about 2000 or more eggs a day and upto about 1,500000 eggs during her life time. The queen has a remarkable capacity of controlling the fertilization of its eggs. A fertilized egg is laid in a worker or queen cell or honey comb, while an unfertilized egg in a drone cell, the latter develops parthogenetically. The queen mates only once in a life time. The sperms stored in her spermatheca fertilize her eggs as long as she lives.