In message <[log in to unmask]>, James Kilty <honeymount
[log in to unmask]> writes
>In message <[log in to unmask]>, Murray McGregor
><[log in to unmask]> writes about drone-laying queens
>>The tricky ones are the little
>>intercastes from poor and late emergency cells, which do not mate and
>>lay a sporadic and sparse pattern.
>I must admit to having problems finding most drone-layers and this would
>explain the problem. Though often they just lay in the drone cells with
>a normal pattern but very low rate.
Following Murray's tip as usual I managed to find a worker sized bee
with upper abdomen smooth, rather like a queen, behaving like a queen:
walking over the cells, testing worker cells, moving back to the drone
cells; stopping to be fed. She had come from a cell cut out and moved
from the source colony. If it was her, she had started laying much too
soon (before the usual 12 days) and much sooner than any laying worker I
have ever come across. After giving her the chop, the colony received a
gift of a freshly hatched virgin from a hygienic mother colony. All was
well.
--
James Kilty