Hello to all, This discussion began with the comments on the failure of a particular queen cell. It led to the advancement of the theory that a factor in this problem was an inadequate supply of nurse bees. I will attempt to add a little to the subject. a. Bees do take flight outside the hive earlier then most of the literature states. Read about bees emerging and going straight to foraging (still looking for my reference to this) b. Scent factors cannot be ruled out when it comes to a bee finding "home". However this is cannot be stated as the only way they find "home". Otherwise drifting would be a bigger situation. All other discussion aside a shortage of nurse bees is a factor that could affect queen production. And this shortage could be a result of a nectar flow in combination with the age of the bees available to forage for nectar. It is a known observation that a nurse bee does not nurse a larva from egg to capping. This is done by different bees. What would happen if the next expected nurse bee instead went of to gather nectar? A paper titled "Regulation of honey bee division of labor by colony age demography" Huang and Robison, Published in 1996, addresses some of these questions. On Pages 154-155 changes in resource availability is addressed. This was first noted in 1937. This is called behavioral change and is not the same as behavioral development. This causes a young bee to forage during a honey flow. Particularly a happening when there is a shortage of older bees. Another paper (Fergusson and Winston 1988) noted behavioral change in colonies deprived of wax. This is attributed to increased forager activity among older bees transferring to the younger bees. This is just a sample of the information available on the subject. It all points to a possibility that queen cell failure during a honey flow could be attributed to a shortage of nurse bees. Thomas J. Martin Shippensburg, Pa :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::