Laying Worker Hives

[Michael Bush]

Statistics are always how you want to look at them.  You could look at footrace and assume women are not good runners because the first ten people across the line are men and then the first women.  But that's ignoring that the first women beat several thousand men.

If you want to say it's rare that a worker lays eggs in a queenright hive, from the point of view of whether to expect a given worker to be a laying worker, then I agree.  But there are always a few in every hive.  So is it rare that a queenright hive has a laying worker?  No.  but it's rare that any given worker in a queenright hive will be a laying worker.  There are many more studies than the one I cited that would back this up, but I really don't have time to find dozens, read through them, find the paragraphs that apply and quote them to you.  I only kept track of the one.  I seemed good enough to make the point.

[MikeyN.C.]

Then feral hives work on this same principal ?