On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 11:27:07 -0500, Zachary Huang <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Just wonder if any of your here have seen workers being reared in drone >cells. A professor at the University of Guelph once told me about an experiment he performed with drone comb. He shook a package of bees into a hive with nothing but drone comb to see how the queen would react. After laying a lot of unfertilized eggs, the queen started laying fertilized eggs in drone cells. However he said only half of these workers (that developed in drone cells) hatched out. The unhatched workers turned out to be facing the comb's midrib so could not chew their way out. After a little more investigation it was determined that the reason for this was that when pupating, the workers use the rough capping as compared to the smooth cell bottom to orient their heads towards the capping. I assume in a drone cell, workers feel the smooth cell bottom on one side and some empty air on the other, hence they guessed wrong about which end was the smoothest 50% of the time. I mentioned all this a few years ago, Zachary, which reminds me of a joke. Where did Noah keep his bees? In his archives. (Ark,Ark,Ark) On CBC's radio program Quirks and Quarks last weekend, I heard a scientist saying that animals like snakes, which have periods of lethargy, prevent atrophy of muscles by sending regular nerve impulses to their muscles. Does anybody know if there is research showing that bees do the same thing over winter? How about beekeepers on computers? Ted