> >So in a typical queenright colony at this time of year there may be as many >as half a dozen laying workers. I think it was Aebi who wrote (although I >don't know his source) that maybe 1% of laying workers can lay female eggs. >So maybe something in the region of one colony in 20 will have a laying >worker producing female eggs. > >That is one of several (more likely) explanations for something I found this >year: a sealed queen cell several inches above a good queen excluder with no >other brood above the QE. The queen was in full lay below the QE. > >Chris Yes, and I'm glad for that explaination too. When I saw something similar in one of my scut hives I wondered if all those old tales were true of a hive stealing an egg from another hive in the area. The whole concept of thelytoky seems much more reasonable :-)