Do Workers 'Know' which eggs are which?

[malawi2854]

Was thinking about this today...

Does a worker bee know the difference between a fertilised and unfertilised egg?

Also - if one has a drone laying queen, and she is popping out unfertilised eggs all over the place, the workers seem quite happy to raise the drones in worker cells - how does this work - don't the cells need to be made bigger?

I ask, as one of my colonies is at a pivotal moment - suddenly, there has been an explosion of eggs, after some rather ropey times - is it safe to assume that if they are capped as worker brood, that they really are worker brood - or might they cap drones as workers by mistake?

Thanks!

 

[malawi2854]

Any ideas anyone?

 

[huntsman666]

<don't the cells need to be made bigger?>

The cappings are much bigger than normal drone cappings.

 

[malawi2854]

Yes, I mean the cells themselves. When they deliberately construct drone cells, they are bigger than worker cells - but if they have a drone laying queen, they don't appear to make the cells themselves wider, they just give them different cappings.

Which suggests they DO know the difference between fertilised and unfertilised eggs... or does it?!?

 

[biggles]

Mr Hooper says when talking on drone laying queen "the nurse bee recognize the sex early and cap them with the high drone capping."

I wonder how early?

so I don't think they know if they are fertilised and unfertilised eggs.

 

[Travelator]

Normally the queen "decides" what type of egg to lay, so if she's in a large drone cell she will lay an unfertilised egg.

If the queen is a drone layer, maybe she "thinks" she's laying fertilised eggs in the worker cells even though they're really unfertilised.

Finally, of course, workers do not cap eggs, they cap larvae. When drone larvae are in worker cells, they always give them domed drone-type cappings. I would guess that they can tell drone from worker larvae by smell, but it could also be that drone larvae are simply bigger.

 

[huntsman666]

Laying workers lay in worker cells. These when capped have a very big capping, much bigger than for a drone raised in a proper drone cell.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

The workers must know or things would get a little tight if a drone was sealed in a worker sized cell...

Brian