Hello Bill Hughes and all:
 
In the first few days a very young queen often places several eggs in one
cell, but I have not seen the extra eggs placed on the cell walls as with
laying workers;  nor have I seen this in 20% of egg holding cells.  The
young queen lays this way (in my opinion) just because of her
inexperience, and it ceases in just a few days.  In the case cited here,
it is not stated how much area in this six frames  have eggs and larvae,
and how much area has capped brood ( presumably left by the old swarmed
queen).  I read this as  a new laying queen, the swarm having left about
2+ weeks ago;  fill us in!  My vote goes against laying workers here.
 
Bob Barnett, Birmingham
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Date:    Sat, 30 May 1998 19:43:41 -0500
From:    BILL HUGHES JR <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Laying workers or young queen???
 
> Today I checked one of my hives and discovered that some of the cells
> had two eggs in them, but not all.  I checked all the frames and
> found that it was about a 20% had two eggs while the rest had only one.
> There is six frames of sealed brood, larvae and eggs and lots of bees
>  This colony did swarm eariler this year.  Do I just have a
> young queen or laying workers?
 
Bill Hughes