> There is no biological reason why these workers should accept an unrelated queen.

That is, if you accept the concept that the bees are the colony, that their function is to perpetuate their genes. I challenge that assumption, and contend that the queen is the colony and the bees function is to propagate her genes. This idea was promoted by William Morton Wheeler and expanded by Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World". 

Viewed from this perspective, the workers are doing what they are supposed to which is to support the queen and her colony. The changing of the queen takes place naturally during supersedure and occasionally in cases of nest usurpation. Queen supersedure is an orderly process whereby the queen raises a daughter to replace her role in maintaining her colony. 

True, they appear to be loyal to their own queen and attack intruding queens, but this loyalty wears off quickly, when the odor of the current queen dissipates. 

After mere hours, they are ready to go to work for any queen, which indicates to me that they are programmed to cooperate and support _a queen_ and that the queen uses chemicals (queen mandibular secretions) to command and control the colony.

PLB

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