Peter > The queen usually restricts egg laying in colonies preparing to swarm.


I agree.  My comments were about the study's assay and their claim that cell size alone promotes the occurrence of larger eggs - I just find that had to believe. 

If restrictive laying prior to prime swarms results in queen structures with larger eggs, which I agree can happen, I have not noticed it and have not read any science on the subject, admittedly, neither of which precludes its occurrence.  It may be happening and may be the reason why beekeepers are in general agreement that swarm queens are are among the best queens.  

In my opinion, intercaste queens begin with grafted larva older than 36hrs. It's splitting hairs but on the continuum of what age larva makes the best queens, we know from the science that younger the better. Starting your queens with an egg instead of grafting eliminates the intercaste issue and according to this study, starting a queen with a larger egg may yield a better queen in terms of both ovary size and gene expression.  The intrigue is that small-scale queen rearing using larger eggs is doable in the field without much effort. 


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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