> I am not sure that you can reliably tell an attendant from
> a non-attendant by inspection alone.  They don't wear signs(!) and do blend
> in with their other sisters and half-sisters well.  I do not believe that
> research has shown that attendants have the same dad and therefore would have
> similiar coloration.

I don't get this at all.  Maybe I am missing something here?  I always
understood that the bees riding in a queen cage with a queen bee are called
attendants, and that they are supposed to be young bees inserted to care for her
on the trip and provide her with food which they get from the candy in the cage.

...At least that is how I thought it was with the thousands of queens I bought
and the many hundreds I caged myself.

What are the non-attendants and where do they ride?  And please tell me about
their dad.

allen