Hi

Two days ago (June 18th) I looked into a 5 frame nucleus colony 
into which I had put a queen cell on 24th May. The queen was 
running about on the first frame I pulled out, but was off it by the 
time I had it fully out.  I subsequently found her lying on the 
floor of the box, apparently undamaged but unmoving.  On 
closer examination her antennae were twitching a little but there 
was no other movement.  She had clearly been mated OK as 
there were three frames of brood in all stages. I left the queen on 
a top bar, and came back today (20th June) with a further queen 
cell for the colony.  I found the original queen marching round 
on a frame, apparently undamaged.

On the grounds that there is nothing new in beekeeping, does 
anyone have a reference to this behaviour?  I half recollect 
mention of apparent catalepsy as a defensive act by insects, but I 
cannot recall where.

Regards


Mike Rowbottom


HARROGATE
North Yorks 
UK

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