bob harrison wrote:
Allen,
> I have counted the output several times but never for 24 hours in a row.
> I have taken a prolific queen and put her into a observation hive. Use a
> counter every time she lays a egg and then multiply a hours worth of egg
> laying by 24 hours. From my observations i don't believe over 2000 per
> day to be a realistic figure. I found queens are like people with many
> differences. Some would look in every cell before laying a egg. Others
> would look in only half and some only on occasion. I found some queens
> would lay for awhile and then wonder about for awhile. By my
> observations the most egg laying was done by the queens not looking in
> each cell first to check cell fo cleanliness. Maybe they were looking
> but not sticking there head in. Anyway its easy to check a queen once in
> a while with a counter if not interrupted. I really don't know how you
> could count egg laying in a closed hive but suppose you could count a
> queen laying eggs in the field on a pulled frame for a period of time
> and multiply for a rough estimate. Many times i have seen queens
> continue to lay on a pulled frame if kept from direct sunlight.

> Bob