For those who are not familiar with us, we raise queens in baby
nucs and this year while working noticed something different.
        Baby nucs are useful for noting the workings of bee hives in as much
as they have a relatively small amount of bees on the frames and
we see things that in a regular sized hive would be overlooked. We
are careful in our methods and organisation, but in spite of this
will occasionaly get 'laying workers' because we have missed a nuc
going queenless.
        We note the color of our bees and find a common colour throughout
each baby nuc. When laying workers appear we start to notice bees of
a slightly different colour, which because of their difference really
stand out. Our normal bees have the usual segmentation of colour, but
these new bees look for all the world as if their segmentation has
slipped. The bottom two segments are shiny black.       It would seem that
as the laying worker problem becomes more intense then more and more
of these different coloured bees appear.
        Could it be that these are the ones that have newly developed
ovaries? It might be possible as our regular queens have a darker
back end.
        Constructive comments anyone?
 
 
 
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The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2,
Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1
Phone/fax  705-326-7171
David Eyre, Owner.
http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks
e-mail <[log in to unmask]>
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