Can nurse bees move an egg? I know an egg is adhered to the wax cell wall. I do not know if the egg(s) can be moved by nurse bees without harm. I am GUESSING an egg cannot be moved. Do you know?
Blessings
As far as I know, they cannot move an egg. When a queen is suddenly lost, the bees creat emergency queen cell on the frame even when they have queen cups ready in the hive. I?m sure if they could move them they would put an egg or a larvae in one.
Jim
Agreed, good point Master Jim.
There is no advantage for moving an egg unless it was from another hive but that ain't happening.
Actually you here folks every year claim bees will move eggs.... I have actually heard CLAIMS bees have moved eggs from one hive to another??? As I said CLAIMS.....
Quote from: sc-bee on May 04, 2018, 10:15:02 PM
Actually you here folks every year claim bees will move eggs.... I have actually heard CLAIMS bees have moved eggs from one hive to another??? As I said CLAIMS.....
If they could do that, that would be extraordinary information indeed. Nature will find a way? Very interesting. Any one out there have research to back this up? Thanks sc-bee for the hear say, as sometimes hear say is proven to be fact?
I have never heard of anyone actually observing bees moving an egg. REmoving an egg, yes. Carrying one around, maybe, but putting one in a cell, no. There are people who think the only explanation for something they have observed is that the bees moved an egg. Always in these situations thelytoky, which has been observed, would also explain it. Choosing between a never observed phenomena and one that has been observed many times in many places for many years I'd choose the observed one as the most likely.
{thelytoky}. To my knowledge, with regards to honey bees, this occurs only in Africa with the cape honey bees.
Blessings
It also can happen with our bees on rare occasions.
Jim
"" While Thelytoky is exhibited strongly in Capensis, it does occur in all races of Apis mellifera, but in all except Capensis, it is very rare [1]. At Capensis levels it is destructive, but at levels of one in a million it is unlikely to do much harm and on the rare occasion that the gene pool is impoverished, it can maintain genes that might be otherwise lost.""
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/thelytoky.html
> To my knowledge, with regards to honey bees, this occurs only in Africa with the cape honey bees.
There are instances that were observed back in the 1800s in England with the native bees there. There have been instances of observing it in Italians. These are both rare but observed. There is an entire study on bees in Arizona that exhibit it on a very predictably regular basis. With the cap bees it is much more exaggerated to the point that a worker will take over another hive. In the previously mentioned instances it only resulted in a hopelessly queenelss colony raising a queen from a worker laid diploid unfertilized egg who then took over the colony.
Thanks for sharing info, Master Jim, Id, MB. Always good to learn.
Blessings