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

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