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A laying worker bee is a
Laying workers lay eggs that lack the queen's egg recognition pheromone, meaning that other workers may remove the eggs. This results in a spotty brood pattern, in which empty cells are scattered heavily through capped brood. *''Number of eggs per cell''
The beekeeper looks at the honeycomb cells to see how many eggs are laid in each one. Queen bees will usually lay only a single egg to a cell, but laying workers will lay multiple eggs per cell. Multiple eggs per cell are not an absolute sign of a laying worker because when a newly mated queen begins laying, she may lay more than one egg per cell. *''Egg position''
Egg position in the cell is a good indicator of a laying worker. A queen bee's abdomen is noticeably longer than a worker, allowing a queen to lay an egg at the bottom of the cell. A queen bee will usually lay an egg centered in the cell. Workers cannot reach the bottom of normal depth cells, and will lay eggs on the sides of the cell or off center. *''Drone brood in worker cells''
Another good indicator is drone brood in worker sized cells. Drones are raised in larger cells than workers. Drone cells are recognizable by their larger size; and when capped, drone cells are capped with blunt pointed cappings. Drones in worker cells are a sure sign of a failing queen or laying worker.
A laying worker bee is a worker bee
A worker bee is any female (eusocial) bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen. While worker be ...
that lays unfertilized eggs, usually in the absence of a queen bee
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female ( gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed ...
. Only drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
s develop from the eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
of laying worker bees (with some exceptions, see thelytoky). A beehive
A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...
cannot survive with only a laying worker bee.
Prevalence
Even in a normal hive, about 1% of workers have ovaries developed enough to lay eggs. However the usual number of the laid eggs is very small. Only eight eggs (seven moderately and one fully developed) were found after examining of 10,634 worker bees (strong colony contains about 100,000). Workers eventually lay significant numbers of eggs only in queenless colonies.Development
Laying workers develop in the absence of open brood as produced by a healthy adult queen. Normally,pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...
s from the brood – known as brood recognition pheromones – prevent development of the workers' ovaries
The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. T ...
. Laying workers can develop after the colony's queen has been lost to swarming, or in the presence of a failing queen which has yet to be superseded. The process of developing a laying worker usually takes weeks after the loss of the original queen. In adult laying workers there is an anatomic (and physiological) trade-off between the sizes of their more developed ovaries and their less developed food glands.
Identification
All methods of identifying a laying worker bee involve inspection, in which the beekeeper examines the brood pattern and type to identify if a healthy queen is present, or a potential laying worker. The beekeeper looks for diagnostic signs, including: *''Brood pattern''Laying workers lay eggs that lack the queen's egg recognition pheromone, meaning that other workers may remove the eggs. This results in a spotty brood pattern, in which empty cells are scattered heavily through capped brood. *''Number of eggs per cell''
The beekeeper looks at the honeycomb cells to see how many eggs are laid in each one. Queen bees will usually lay only a single egg to a cell, but laying workers will lay multiple eggs per cell. Multiple eggs per cell are not an absolute sign of a laying worker because when a newly mated queen begins laying, she may lay more than one egg per cell. *''Egg position''
Egg position in the cell is a good indicator of a laying worker. A queen bee's abdomen is noticeably longer than a worker, allowing a queen to lay an egg at the bottom of the cell. A queen bee will usually lay an egg centered in the cell. Workers cannot reach the bottom of normal depth cells, and will lay eggs on the sides of the cell or off center. *''Drone brood in worker cells''
Another good indicator is drone brood in worker sized cells. Drones are raised in larger cells than workers. Drone cells are recognizable by their larger size; and when capped, drone cells are capped with blunt pointed cappings. Drones in worker cells are a sure sign of a failing queen or laying worker.
References