One of the most important functions of the queen is to enforce the social order of the hive. She does this by her very presence! "Queen Substance" is a pheromone that the queen secretes to let the member bees know that all is well in the hive. Pheromones are chemical substances secreted by the body that like members of the same species recognize and respond to. Bees in a colony "share" the queen's pheromones among themselves, and thus recognize fellow members, as well as identify intruders. The absence of a queen causes obvious "distress" among bees of the colony. These bees act much differently than bees in a hive with an active queen.