> I think others which have looked at queens and egg laying would provide
> interesting information for the list and may have seen very different egg
> production in their research.

> Researchers care to comment?

Not my own research, but Dr. Rick Fell of VA Tech touched on this issue
in his presentation to the West Virginia Beekeeper's fall meeting.  He
has study data that found significant impact on both drone sperm count and
sperm viability as a result of using not just CheckMite, but also Apistan
and Formic Acid.

While this has nothing at all to do with the number of eggs laid per
day, it was something I did not know.  Checkmite had the worst impact
of course, then Apistan, then Formic.  He whizzed through his slides
too quickly for me to jot down any specific numbers.

I've pointed video cameras at observation hives before to count number
of eggs per day, and I've never seen better than 1 egg per minute in
a sustained burst that might bring the average up to anything well above
1440 - 1500.  I've filmed under all sorts of seasonal/temperature/humidity
conditions, but I have never shoved a small swarm into an observation hive.

I've even filmed under low-light and darkroom "safelights" in an attempt
to eliminate the impact of light on the situation.  (Once a colony gets
"used to" an observation hive, they apparently learn to tolerate or
ignore a low-level of "extra" light, so this is a non-issue.  Complete
darkness versus daily exposure to low-level indirect lighting appears
to make no difference.)

It is interesting that some have seen queens in a swarm laying so rapidly
and with so little concern for cell condition.  To me, this means that
the queen "has it in her" (assuming that this is a swarm including an
marked and known "old" queen), but somehow chooses to "work harder" when
establishing a new hive after a swarm.

Of course, people have been trying for years to convince the bees that
they "just swarmed" for purposes of drawing new comb and producing comb
honey, and for the most part, the bees remain unconvinced.  :)


       jim (Orkut? Friendster? OK, so the person behind the
            counter at Starbucks may be your friend's roommate's
            cousin's co-worker's boyfriend's sister. But so what?)

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