Drone egg recognition

[L Daxon]

What happens if, by mistake, I put a frame of drone eggs in a nuc (cause I can't tell a worker egg from a drone egg) when I am hoping to make a new queen.  Do the worker bees recognize that the eggs are unfertilized and thus refrain from trying to make a queen out of one or more of them?  Or do they think an egg is an egg and start feeding the drone eggs royal jelly and drawing out a bigger queen cell, but you end up with a sterile queens?

[tefer2]

 You have to have a fertilized egg to make a queen.
A non fertilized egg can only become a drone.

[Wolfer]

The bees can tell if an egg is fertilized. I've had some drone laying queens that would lay in worker cells. The next day the cells would be empty. The bee police had cleaned them out.

If you have a frame with young larva and eggs in worker comb it's probably viable.

[Robo]

Do the worker bees recognize that the eggs are unfertilized and thus refrain from trying to make a queen out of one or more of them? 

No

Or do they think an egg is an egg and start feeding the drone eggs royal jelly and drawing out a bigger queen cell, but you end up with a sterile queens?

Yes

A good example is a laying worker hive.  The bees will attempt to raise queens from the unfertilized laying worker eggs.   This leads me to question when beekeepers claim bees will only use "the correct age" larvae to rear queens.

As far as grafting goes,  you should be using your best mother queen with a great brood pattern.  If a queen is worthy of grafting from,  unfertilized eggs should not be a concern.

[Wolfer]

Rob would know far more about this than I would but I've always felt when laying workers tried to make a queen from an infertile egg it was in desperation. They still knew.

I'm just talking theory here because I've never had laying workers. I don't go that long between inspections and when I see a problem I address it immediately.
Woody Roberts

[BeeMaster2]

What happens if, by mistake, I put a frame of drone eggs in a nuc (cause I can't tell a worker egg from a drone egg) when I am hoping to make a new queen.  Do the worker bees recognize that the eggs are unfertilized and thus refrain from trying to make a queen out of one or more of them?  Or do they think an egg is an egg and start feeding the drone eggs royal jelly and drawing out a bigger queen cell, but you end up with a sterile queens?

Look at the size of the cells of the comb. The workers are in the small cells, drones are in the large ones. Be sure to try to give them eggs/larvae that is in new comb. It is much easier for the bees to cut the comb to make the queen cell.
Jim

[Robo]

Rob would know far more about this than I would but I've always felt when laying workers tried to make a queen from an infertile egg it was in desperation. They still knew.

I can't say whether they "know" or not,  but I'm not sure what difference it makes.   If they are "desperate" enough to knowingly attempt to make a queen from an infertile egg, isn't it reasonable to assume they would also be desperate enough to raise a queen from an older, past prime larvae?   After all,  you can still get a somewhat viable queen from an older larvae, where there is no chance to get a viable queen from an unfertilized egg.   Those who rely on emergency queens when making splits never seem to take this into consideration and claim the bees are smart enough to not use older larvae :?

Isn't it desperation every time they make an emergency queen?


Rob....

[MsCarol]

Getting into buggy brains is not a simple thing to do..... :-D

In the desperation to make a new queen, I can see the logic of making (feeding for) a queen from what ever resources they have. An older larvae might develop into a "poor" queen because she never received the care in early development that she should have. Yet the genetics are still there. All she must do for the colony to have a chance survive is live, fly to be mated and lay some fertile eggs. From there another new queen can be raised.

From there the colony has a chance.......maybe....depending on how many geriatric workers are plugging along.