Has the queen night vision goggles?

[beeboy55]

Given that it is dark in the hive how does the queen know that a cell is empty and ready for her to lay an egg into?

 

[Robbo8916]

Can she smell that there is an egg in there maybe? Or does she stick her head in first? Not sure but good question.

 

[Galaxy55]

Must have a way of sensing if there is an egg in the cell.

 

[Motobiman]

I was watching a queen in an observation hive with one of our junior members and we were lucky enough to see her majesty check out an empty cell.

She poked her head and most of her thorax in and then backed out, turned and reversed in.

Only a few seconds later she was off and with an LED magnifying glass her newly laid egg was visible.

So maybe it's done physically with her antennae.

 

[MerryBee]

According to Mark Winstons excellent book “The biology of the honey bee”, the queen determines the cell size during her pre egg-laying inspection, when she places her head and forelegs into the cell. Fertilisation of the egg is prevented by a stimulus obtained during inspection of drone cells with the forelegs. An additional mechanism might also involve the abdominal angle upon oviposition in the two differently sized cells.

 

[Fritillary]

When I think about it, this does makes me feel a bit of a wimp for complaining that I no longer have the vision to see eggs...