Hi all

Not sure whether Bob or Barry said this

> I  put forth the hypothesis early on in the
> discussion possibly the workers had  mated with drones when normal queens
> were raised from capensis worker eggs.   I believe Anderson suspected the
> same thing when he looked at capensis .

Are you suggesting in flight mating as with "normal" queens?
I was under the impression that sight as well as smell was involved in
drones recognising a queen in flight. As workers would normally accompany a
queen or be close by, surely the drones must be in some way be programmed to
ignore workers even if they smelled like the queen due to physical contact
with her.

I do not see how a drone could get excited enough without being in flight to
achieve eversion pressure in an "indoor" environment.

Regards From:- Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping and Bee Breeding, http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman
IBList Archives, http://website.lineone.net/~d.cushman