On  9 Feb 98 at 8:03, Richard Bonney wrote:
 
> >there was one which showed a rather mature queen.  She backed out
> >of her cell and disappeared down into the colony.
>
> Do you make anything of her backing out rather than emerging
> normally?
 
There is nothing sinister in her backing out. I have watched a number
of queens emerge over the years. While they all emerge head first,
her first action seems to be turn round and go back in head first. It
might be an automatic reaction, as in worker bees to clean the cell,
or a desire to feed on the remaining royal jelly. The latter I would
suggest as newly emerged queens don't appear to excite the workers
into feeding her for a couple of days.
 
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