Paul C. Cheng ([log in to unmask]) answers ...
 
> On a side note...has anyone also noticed that if you place an empty frame
> (no foundation) into an A. mellifera hive, the workers produce drone
> cells?  Our visiting scholar from China in our laboratory states that
> A. cerana workers build worker cells.  Anyone know why the difference?
 
        If you place an empty frame, the workers produce drone cells only
if there is not room enought to the drone eggs legging (more or less 5 %
of the nest surface).  And if you don't place empty frame, they change
some part of the nest into drone cells.  You must not generalize : we have
confirmation in our hives with an "indicator frame".
 
  It is an idea from a German, Paschke, which the daughter published in a
book : the "indicator-frame".  In two words : it is a small frame placed
in the back wall of the hive, perpendicularly to the other frames, as in a
window, closed with a glass and well isolated from the cold (actually we
put a 4 cm extruded polystyrene or polyurethane - important !).  Since the
gooseberry-bush blooming to the end of the swarm time, this frame is
placed each week with only a 2 cm foundation on the top.  The next week is
is removed and a new one is placed.
 
1/ you could at any moment see and observe your bees making the comb and
often the queen and her attendants visiting the cells and eggs laying.
 
2/ with a little practice (the books help you + or - !) the observations
at this frame give you "a lot of indications" (his name) about your bees
colony, in the absolute and by comparison with the neighbouring hives :
mainly about swarming.  It is really a "tool" you may use without open the
hive and disturb your bees colony.  Remember : to separate two combs is to
cut alive.
 
Now, about drone cells !  Generally, this frame is produced into drone
cells and the queen lays there only drone eggs.  You can see : she
controls the cell size and after, she lays egg.  But, if there is drone
comb enough in the hive (f.e: if, to keep a lot of drones for our mating,
we put a drone frame into the hive) then the indicator-frame is produced
only into workers cells - you may verify that, usually, the cells so
produced are smaller than the cells of the foundations you are buying in
the store.  I have a lot of observations of this kind, with measurement of
combs surface.  After the swarming time, the comb are always produced in
worker cells and rapidly, if the honey flow decrease, the indicator-frame
is no more build. N.B. reciprocally, if the comb is produced in worker
cells, the swarm time is finished for this colony.
 
   Thus, the workers of A. mellifera produce drone cells until they
"consider" that there is enough drone combs in their hive !  It is another
signal the bee can mesure and take care with + or - of sensibility.
 
 
Regards                         JMVD
 
 
Local blooming informations ...
Lat. : 4¨ 56'E - Long : 50¨ 30'N  -  Alt : 200 m  -  North sea : 200 km
 
The may hawthorn (crataegus oxyacantha L.) is blooming its last blossoms ...
   it's generally the last blooming for the spring honey crop in our country !
Locally the false acacia (robinia pseudacacia L.) is fully blooming : a lot
   of flowers but, strangly, this year, a few of honey bees ! ? (climatic
   conditions ?)
 
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 Jean-Marie Van Dyck                    Fax +32 81 72 42 72
 B.P. 102                               email : [log in to unmask]
 B-5000     NAMUR(Belgium)              Medical school - Biochemistry dept
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