Robert Mann wrote:
  The large differences are due to feeding an ordinary diploid grub more
royal  jelly  (secreted by young workers before they fly).

I have heard of only the nurse bees being able to secret royal jelly.
Is there a change which takes place caused by flying or is flying your
way of saying approx 2 weeks?   Are you saying i could trap flying bees
and put in a small nuc with a freshly dry grafted queen cell and they
could not produce enough royal jelly to produce a queen?  In spring i
could easily do this experiment.  Once these royal jelly glands dry up
they can NEVER produce royal jelly again?

  She is entirely dependent on  the workers and is in no useful sense a
dictator.

I believe she and she alone controls when the swarm leaves the hive. Not
what the books say and only my opinion.

Books say:egg laying queen can't fly and queen quits laying eggs for
three days before swarming.  I used to believe the above (as did our
forefathers believe there was a king bee).

I might believe a old queen(most times) isn't likely to fly and quits
laying eggs prior to swarming for a unknown reason or because flight is
easier.

I have taken a old laying queen and put her in a single box with nine
frames of emerging brood and shook other bees in on top and watched her
bring a swarm out of the hive.  I discovered the fact by accident.  I
was making comb honey over queenless bees when i accidently put a queen
in the box.  I couldn't believe what i was seeing and found i had by
accident put a queen in a very crowded box.  The swarm went about 250
feet to a oak tree.  I had to stand on a ladder in the back of a pickup
to get the swarm.  I shook the swarm thru a queen excluder and got my
old queen and put her back in the hive she came from originaly and put
the bees into the comb honey box.  What do i think i learned?

1. queen can swarm at the drop of a hat without scouts reporting
back,queen cells or even eggs for the bees to raise a queen from.

2.Location was most likely picked in flight and i believe most likely by
the queen .

3. old egg laying queen can fly if she wants to. I have seen many week
to two week old queens fly which have been laying eggs but not (i
wouldn't think)up to maximum laying.

4. the box she swarmed out of had bees from three hives.  Almost all (if
not all)field bees left with her and none tried to ball her.  If they
had i think i would have seen as i ran the whole swarm thru a excluder.
Once i had her safely back in her colony and the field bees trapped in
my swarm box i looked thru the box the swarm issued from.  Emerging
brood and some fuzzy nurse bees.  From the number of bees left the bees
from three different hives left in the swarm with her.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

comment: Some hives will make the sound of a queenless hive within
minutes of the queen being removed from the hive. To beginers reading
this trust me if you keep bees long enough you will learn the sound of
queenless bees. I believe a possible answer is because i had twelve
hives tore apart at one time and working on several hives at the same
time that the hive which swarmed had realized they were queenless.I had
been working non stop for a couple hours so i can't remember exactly how
long the bees had been in the box.  I can't say for sure they were
making the queenless sound because i was very busy and working by
myself.  When i added her they must have  bonded and within approx
fifteen minutes  they swarmed.  I had allready put the lid back on and
was working in another area of the yard when i saw them leave.  Maybe
the whole thing was a unusual happening.  Maybe not.  maybe i should
have tried to repeat the experiment before telling the world.  Maybe
not.