Hi Robin

> Assuming: (1) a queen will lay to her capacity in the spring build-up;

A queen can only lay to the capaicty at which she is fed by workers. There
is no reason to suggest that this is her maximum possible rate.

> does it not follow inevitably that if the colony is encouraged to rear say
> 10% of brood as drones, production of workers must be reduced by 10%?

Too simplistic, I am not saying that drones are raised at 'no cost', but the
production of drones actually spurs more activity, particulary in pollen
gathering (it takes about six times as much pollen to rear a drone than a
worker). This extra activity  is easy to find as the workers are never as
'busy' as many assume and can always do more if it is required.

Levels of drones that naturally occur are between 17% and 23%. I have worked
with colonies with as many as 50% drones that still produce at least some
surplus honey, yet each drone requires considerably more in resources to
raise as it is 200% of the volume of a worker (the high demand for pollen is
due to the volume of the sexual parts being a considerable proportion of the
whole).

If raising drones was at the cost of worker brood, then levels of 50% would
not be possible, because the resources needed to build a drone are about
eight times that required to build a worker.

There is an opposite side to this coin...

If you deliberately reduce the amount of drones that a colony produces, far
from allowing a larger colony of workers, the level of workers also falls as
well as the work rate of those that are available being lowered.

Regards & Best 73s... Dave Cushman G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or  http://www.dave-cushman.net
Temporary Conditions... Using 'PATCHY' VPN pass-through server
2nd build

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