>Hi,
>
>I'm working on a gardening magazine piece on beekeeping in
>the city. (The editor saw the hives in our community garden
>and asked me to do the piece.) I've a couple of questions
>that perhaps you'd answer for me.
>
>Our beekeeper told me that "When the queen loses her
>fecundity, the workers build queen cells and feed them on
>royal jelly, and the queen takes workers and drones out of
>the hive with her to swarm and go somewhere else."
>
>          What happens to this proto-hive if the queen has
>lost her fecundity? What happens to the queen...the other
>bees?
>          How many queens actually hatch from the queen cells
>in the original hive? How does one become THE queen?
>          Where does the royal jelly come from?
>          What's in it that "allows the queen to live 5 yrs
>while other bees only live 42 days"?
>
>Are there other sources of beekeeping info in cyberspace
>besides Penn State's PenPages?
>
>Thank you so much. I just help take honey around here and
>feel a little ignorant when it comes to writing about apiculture.
>
>Libby J. Goldstein
 
 
Dear Libby,
 
        There are two good books to start with for one with your
background, both by Sue Hubbell.  If I were you  I would start with A
COUNTRY YEAR.  When you have finished that one, read A BOOK OF BEES.  These
books are very well written and easy to follow.  The answers to most of
your questions appear in there -- it is difficult for any of us to find the
time to draft an answer to all these basic types of questions.
 
                                         Adrian M. Wenner
                                         Prof. of Natural History, Emeritus
 
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