Não sabemos ao certo.
Feijão e sua prosperidade especulam.
"If it really is a Formic ship," said Cincinnatus, "and it really has been going for seven or weight or ten centuries, anything could have happened. A disease. Running out of unrecoverable trace elements. I think maybe they got to their original destination centuries ago, but it was uninhabitable so they went on, looking for another world. This might be the first one they found." - Shadows in Flight, ch. 4
A rainha tentou fazer filhas. Por alguma razão, nenhum deles sobreviveu.
Carlotta looked up. Lots of stringy protuberances hung down from the highest points. A few of them had melon-sized balls hanging from them.
"What's that?" Carlotta asked.
"Cocoons. I'm sure they're all dead, but I'm going to want to take one ack to the lab to study. - Shadows in Flight, ch. 8
Mais tarde, os drones confirmam isso.
The cocoon Ender had offered them was empty. Dead. It was just another of the cocoons from the Queen's chamber -- they had all died with the Queen. - Shadows in Flight, ch. 8
A comunicação de Ender com os drones também não explica a morte da rainha. Um minuto ela estava alimentando-os, no dia seguinte ela se deitou e morreu.
O que aconteceu com ela, claramente a impediu de fazer casulos viáveis. Talvez 700-1000 anos em uma nave espacial antiga tenham permitido a radiação no espaço para torná-la estéril.