Chuck, No, the pheromone was from older workers to signal younger bees to stay as nurses. The "inhibitor" proposed many years ago (1992) by Robinson and myself only became chemically identified recently and published Dec of 2004. This is the 4th primer (slow working, long term) pheromone identified in the whole animal kingdom. Contrast this with hundreds (perhaps more than a thousand now) of releaser (fast acting) pheromones (sex pheromones, alarm pheromones etc). Mike, No the chemicals from empty combs that stimulates hoarding behavior were never chemically identified. I believe Tom Rinderer (research leader at Baton Rouge bee lab) did some work in the 70s. I did not work in this area at all. To clarify things a bit and to show how many pheromones are there in honey bees, and their relevance to beekeeping (if any), please download the 2nd talk (uploaded today!) on my site: hhttp://cyberbee.net/huangtalk/ Cheers, Zach http://www.bees.net -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---