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> From: Garth <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: good idea or luck/laying workers
> Date: Friday, September 19, 1997 14:38
>
> Hi All
>
> I have recieved a number of posts about something I metnioned about
> combining what we here in A.m.capensis country call a laying worker
> hive.
>
> Normal bees, ie A.m.everything else can develop laying workers that
> lay drone eggs.
>
> Our bees here, develop laying workers that lay clone eggs. IE every
> egg they lay is a copy of themselves and is a fully fledged femal
> worker bee. As you can see this has a number of important problems.
>
> If you get a swam and the queen does not get caught, you end up with
> a hive that has  brood but not enought to grow. It draws comb even,
> forages for pollen, and can even swarm. Sometimes as the LW gets old
> they will swarm and a new queen will be raised. This is cool. More
> often than not one ends up with a sill foul smelling hive that is
> docile and stupid. I hate laying workers.
>
> But: if any other sub-species of bee should be in the area of a
> A.m.capenis hive, if it's queen should die, or get weak, a capensis
> worker will be brought in to substitute her as they smell more queen
> like, the colony will be capensised and die of largely. Hence
> beekeepers in the transvaal have had to kill of  thousands and
> thousands of contaminated hives because of migratory beekeepers
> taking hives up there.
>
> So: the queen is not the only egg layer!
>
> Keep well
>
> Garth
>
>
> ---
> Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
> 15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
> Grahamstown         800ml annual precipitation
> 6139
> Eastern Cape
> South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
>
> 3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
> In general, generalisations are bad.
> Interests: Flii's and Bees.