Worker versus Drone eggs.

[BKF Admin]

When a mated queen lays an egg it contains sperm.
The egg has a small hole at the end.
If the hole is sealed up the egg becomes a worker due to the sperm surviving.
If the hole is left open the sperm dies due to the air reaching it ,dead sperm= Drone egg.

Your thoughts?

 

[Norm]

Well, I have learned something!

I always, assumed the queen decided either to apply sperm or not depending on how wide her legs were apart in the cell.

Thanks for that, I always love learning something new.

 

[BKF Admin]

I may be wrong in that the queen lays 2 types of eggs,fertile and infertile?

Thats why I wrote "Your thoughts"..

 

[RoofTops]

She does and can control it most of the time. However, inbreeding can also produce drones in worker brood. This occurs when the variation between sex alleles is reduced and results in diploid drones which are destryed by the workers creating a characteristic pepperpot look on the comb.

There is a good description of this here: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/dorian_nov07.html

I don't know anything about holes in eggs.

 

[DanBee]

Well, I have learned something!

Norm - it sounded to me more like a question than a statement of fact!

The traditional view is as you say: the queen chooses - consciously or subconsiously - to fertilise the egg as it passes past the duct from the spermatheca based upon her measurement of the cell she is laying in. The eggs do not differ, merely some have sperm added, some do not; all have a hole by which the sperm is understood to enter. The queen's aim must be pretty good

 

[Bcrazy]

The "hole" where the sperm enters the egg is called the Micropyle which is sometimes covered by a thin membrane.

As mentioned before, under normal circumstances, the queen will decide what the egg shall be, fertilised or unfertilised.

Re inbreeding, this throws the "norm" into confusion regarding eggs becoming male or female completely upside down, but unless you are physically caring out a breeding programme it would bee hard to explain why there is an amount of eggs laid by workers. Eggs laid by workers can happen when the queen stops laying period.
I had a colony in my second year of beekeeping that had a full compliment with queen (who unbeknown to me had stopped laying) as there were eggs in these cells I thought everything was ok. It was not untill they were capped did I notice an abundant of drone cells all over the place. Then the penny dropped!! Thick ot what??? You decide.

Regards;