> how about > simply NOT giving the eggs at all to the split for a few days so that > the "orphaned" bees become desperate for a missing mother, to wax the > rhetoric? Not a bad idea at all. The only problem is that, at some times, and under some conditions, bees will abandon splits made with no open brood. If the splits are confined or held in the dark for several days, it could work. As to the original discussion, I never did get a clear answer to the question about emergency cells, but I did conclude as follows: Different strains of bees under differing conditions will give different results if dequeened suddenly. Some will raise an A1 queen, some will raise an intercaste, and some will remain queenless. I suspect that the quality of the resulting queen -- assuming good queen rearing conditions otherwise -- depends not only on the age when the worker larva is 'crowned' (selected to be queen), but also depends on the parent stock and drones in the region. Again, if the bees and others in the region are bees that have been proagated this way over the years and are not special hybrids or incompatible strains, then the result will likely be satisfactory. I think that the reports of really bad emergency queen results come from bees that have been split and left to requeen themselves at a time when the colonies are weak or confined by weather, lacking a flow, or the bees were of a sort that tend to have poor offspring or bad crosses. Thanks for the flashback. allen http://www.honeybeeworld.com :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::