>My calendar does not say April 1st, so I suspect some other sort of leg
>pull. It is the sort of pattern that could result from pinkilling in the
>rosette shape rather than the diamond shape, but if the larvae are alive and
>develop into full size adults that is ruled out.

NO, the frame was from an observation hive and we never tried pins on pupae
yet.

>The only guess that I can make is that the larvae in the cells that are at
>the centre of the rosettes emitted some sort of pheramone that
>inhibited/stunted the growth of the larvae in the cells surrounding it.

Good hypothesis, but it does not explain why exactly 1 out of 7 would be
inhibiting others. Also, inhibited growth should not resulting in different
capping, only later capping.

I guess I will need to:

1). take the fame out
2). map the brood with cellulose paper the normal brood.
3). emerge them in an incubator to see if there any difference between
the two kinds of cells.
4). creat some small cages, and cage the one bee in the center, others cage
the surrounding 6 bees (perhaps by killing the center one). or if I get lucky
I can wait for bees to emerge and grab them in real time.
5). measure and weigh these newly emerged bees to see if they are different
(size and weight).
6). measure cell sizes after bees are out to see if the cells maybe slightly
larger in the center cell.

Any other ideas? I will probably remove the brood sometime this week (so you
are participating an experiment in real time if your input is useful). The
observation hive was installed May 23, from a swarm (of known colony source
so we can check the natal colony for the same brood pattern too, if so it
would be maternal effect).

Zach
http://cyberbee.msu.edu
http://www.mitezapper.com

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