How do they know?

[Bcrazy]

about two years ago, beek near me had empty cells in drone brood, wondered waht was going on..he was told to re queen as possible diploid drones.

I have heard of this only once and I think it might have something to do with inbreeding where homozygosity and homozygosity at the sex locus results in a diploid drone which does not survive.

 

[oliver90owner]

how do they know to feed it differently???

They don't. As far as I know.

RAB

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi oliver90owner

Your correct in saying they just feed drones the same as workers with a mixture of pollen and honey /nectar. As we all know its only the queen who gets feed royal jelly and more royal jelly.
The drones are still fed by workers after they emerge from the cells and when they become mature they feed themselves.

 

[oliver90owner]

Sorry Bcrazy,

Correct, except do they actually ever really feed themselves,... but that has nothing to do with the thread...

Regards, RAB

 

[garethbryson]

http://hirschbachapiary.com/Honey_Bee_Life_History.aspx


"Drone larvae grow larger than either workers or queens and, therefore, require more food. Food given to young drone larvae is nearly devoid of pollen and is milky-white, while that given to older drone larvae is a yellow-brown color and contains considerable pollen. The food given older drone larvae also is higher in pollen content than that given older worker larvae. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative differences distinguish the lar val food given to queen, worker, and drone."

 

[plumber]

I have heard of this only once and I think it might have something to do with inbreeding where homozygosity and homozygosity at the sex locus results in a diploid drone which does not survive.

Bcrazy

paper I read referd to hemi & homozygosity at the sex locus, was this correct
still read said paper appologies if I'm wrong

Mik

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi Mik,

What paper is it you are refering to?

 

[oliver90owner]

garethbryson,

I am quite sure the house bees will feed an appropriate balance of carbohydraterotein to the developing larvae.

The question you originally asked still has a simple answer. The drones are bigger than the workers. The drone larvae are fed longer than the worker brood. That will be due, I am confident, on the physiology of the male larva, maturity development versus size issues, differences between the different castes at that stage. Those larvae will develop exactly the same as those originating from eggs deposited in drone cells. The simple thing about the size will be the time they are fed as larvae, which will mean they are bigger, therefore exceeding the size of a worker brood cell, therefore needing a domed capping. End of story as far as I am concerned. Fine details re ratio of protein fed at later ages is fairly incidental - simply a requirement for balanced feed at that particular growth rate. For example all intensive farm animal rearing involves feeding the correct ratios of feedstuffs, as I am sure you should be aware.


I just use the KISS principle wherver it is appropriate. There is usually a simple answer to most simple questions when you think about it.

RAB

 

[garethbryson]

you are probably right, I am too much of a thinker and ponder silly things that irritate me when i dont know the answer. but thanks for the dabate.

 

[Repwoc]

how do they know to feed it differently???

They probably use a Kanban system, ie they use some sort of indicator to trigger the provision of more food. So they give a lava some food, then when it has gone (or has been depleated to a certain level) they give it some more. Thus the larvae that eat more will be given more.

Drone larvae will grow faster, so when it's time to cap them over they will be bigger and the Bs build the domed capping. Also the pheramones are different - female varroa mites apparently detect the pre-cap drone pheramone and they drop into those cells in preference to the worker cells.