Dave wrote: >Read Maeterlink's "The Life of the Bee" > >He answered the age old question does the queen sjit in the hive? > >its now actually in the public domain and available on-line at >http://www.eldritchpress.org/mm/b.html I must object to this advice. The question posed is a technical matter of fact, and obviously difficult to answer. I love Maeterlinck, as literature; but as technical info it is way out of date. When he wrote, many of the main facts on the life of the bee had not been discovered, much less a tricky item so difficult to observe as the queen's voiding. MM is NOT an authority on this - he was just making it up! R