Hi to all on BEE-L

Thomas wrote:
He conceded, however,the possibility that the queens tested
may have contained "some African blood"(e.g., from Egyptian
and Punic races) as bees of African as well as Middle
Eastern origin had been introduced into the U.S. during the
1800s.

Reply:
Aaaah, Thomas, this is true but still unproven theory at
this time, but what is now stated by you adds another
expansion of those mentioned. We are now talking Egyptian
bees, and caucasian are known to be bees of the Middle
Eastern Origin, as Eur-Asia area I was taught as I grew up
in school with geography, and again Punic races include the
Tunisian bees.

In Dr Mackensen's journal of Economic Entomology Vol 36, No
3 pages 465 and 466 is where I get Dr Mackensen's figures
fo the percentage of virgin queens producing female
offspring and also in the percentage of females produced by
individual queens. Caucasian 23%, Italian 3-banded 9%,
golden Italian queens 57%.

Mackensen said in this paper that the one queen producing
worker progeny under conditions that excluded ALL
possibility of fertilization was a GOLDEN Italian.

Now Mackensen also stated in his paper that it was
estimated, however, that not more than 1 per cent of the
eggs of any of the queens tested developed into workers.

This is good his saying this, for this relates to the
buckshot pattern we see in the field nowadays.

But I am with Dr Mackensen in his saying then and seeing
now that "There remains little doubt, then, that
parthenogenetic females (thelytoky - Dee here) occur more
comonly than has been heretofore believed, at least in the
domestic strains in the United States"

Mackensen also stated in this paper in his last sentense
"However, the data here presented indicate that this
characteristic is more widespread than has been commonly
believed and suggest aht the many queens that have been
reported to appear unexpectedly in hopelessly queenless
colonies can best be explained as having arisen from eggs
laid by laying workers."

To this I now add in closing. Take a super and sit down and
look at your bees during the active brooding year and
analysize what you are seeing as beekeepers. Have you ever
noticed a queen laying full bore up in a third brood super
of unlimited broodnest size and then gone down to the
bottom and found a few pockets of freshly laid eggs below?

Question: Why would a queen laying full bore on a frame up
in the third run down real fast and travel back and forth
to lay but a few eggs?

Dee Just thinking and pondering as most beekeepers loving
bees do!

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions!
http://auctions.yahoo.com