Hi All/Rob

 I aggree my calling a diploid egg layed by a worker fertilised
is incorrect .

Rob, you also mentioned that it would be interesting to see which
workers were allowed to reproduce, and whether any of the queens
offspring will also be allowed to become reproductively active.

 An interesting phenomenon I have noted a few times when I rear queen
cells on capensis is that the bees begin raising queen cells after
the queen is removed, then after five days they will sometimes tear
down all queen cells and begin anew!! From this point there will be
new queen cells raised each day, and when the first queen hatches
there are cells present with freshly laid worker eggs in them! I
suspect this may be one of the reasons people have recorded that
queens lay worker eggs and then after mating can lay both worker and
drone eggs. The workers laying the eggs are genetically pretty much
the same as the queen they raise.

I have also noticed that if I do a bee removal and have a queenless
cluster they will raise a new queen - after a month - and there is
lots of fighting about this.

The concept of a successful gene combination living on in a 'clone
line' is an interesting one in this regard. A small number of bees
can rear a new queen - hence the most successful clone line in a
hive, and the ones able to live the longest rears the new queen, as
once all competition dies in an impoverished hive, the one little
emergency queen to emerge is identical to here worker 'mother'!!

A queen breaders nightmare/paradise depending on how you look at it!

Keep well

Garth

Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa

Time = Honey