It's not easy being queen, especially if you're a honeybee. Sure, you don't have to work and you have a staff of workers to tend to your every need, but you are in this position for one purpose- to produce hundreds or even thousands of eggs every day. The queen keeps her minions loyal by secreting a bee pheromone.
But is a queen were to become ill, from, say, a common bee virus, that pheromone production drops, and so does her egg-laying. The workers become aware that the queen isn't upholding her end of the deal, and they can expel her from the hive! It's brutal, but probably best for the overall health of the hive in the long run. Worker bees have other queens in waiting, but until one matures enough to take over egg-laying duties, the hive is vulnerable to failure. Read how this happens, and what it means to the honey industry, at Popular Science. -via Damn Interesting
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