Dave Cushman wrote:

>There is plenty of evidence that the bees raise queens from larvae that are
>already 'old' by the time that decisions are made to raise queens from them,
>purely by inference from emergence timing.
>
>We know from calibrated tests that queens raised from different starting
>points in their development time, vary in performance, with the best being
>those fed as queens from the first feed.
>
>Therefore the bees do not select the best possible quality queen. That being
>so we have to look for a mechanism that fits the facts that we know.
>
>
We are assuming that there is actual selection. This appears to be the
kind of thing that some computer programmers showed in the distribution
of honey, pollen and brood on a frame, that it happens not by selection,
but by random distribution that shifts to a set pattern in time.

Might the same be here, that larva are given royal jelly in a random way
when there is the need for an emergency queen. If so, then it is obvious
that the older larva have a better chance of developing into a queen
than younger larva.

There is a problem with my assumption, which is what is the cell
selection feeding process for non emergency queens?

I have no idea if there is a different selection process. Might it be
the queen's pheromones in the vicinity of recently laid eggs? If royal
jelly feeding is controlled by strength of the pheromone, then it would
be site specific and young larva would be the most likely to be
selected. If there is no queen, then feeding would be more random and
less site specific. All conjecture.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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