At 09:19 AM 3/6/98 GMT+0200, you wrote:
 
This may no be a laying worker.  Contrary to popular notion, we find that
queens in small colonies often lay 2 or more eggs in a cell.  Not quite as
scattered as a laying worker, but otherwise much the same.  After the new
brood emerges, this stops.  I base this observation on several hundred
units closely monitored for our research over a 20  year period.
 
Question:  Does the queen finally figure it out?  or  Does the queen
continue to put too many eggs in some of the cells, and the workers remove
the extras?  As the colony grows in size, it has more workers, and more
"hands" to do miscellaneous chores.
 
 
Jerry
 
Another case of my favorite notion: The bees didn't read the books.
 
 
 
 
 
>Another thing I have noticed occasionally is that a swarm often has
>laying worker activity as well, and that this declines with time.
>(probably an old queen)
>
>Keep well
>
>Garth
>>
Jerry J. Bromenshenk, Ph.D.
Director, DOE/EPSCoR & Montana Organization for Research in Energy
The University of Montana-Missoula
Missoula, MT  59812-1002
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel:  406-243-5648
Fax:  406-243-4184
http://www.umt.edu/biology/more
http://www.umt.edu/biology/bees