A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. The queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the hive. This close-up photograph shows numerous workers of the East African lowland honey bee surrounding a queen of the European honey bee. The queen bee is marked with a pink dot on the top of its thorax for identification.Photograph credit: Scott Bauer