Describe the storage patterns of honey and pollen in relation to brood on a comb removed from the central brood nest.
Colonies typically produce fewer queen cells when they are superseding their old queen than when they are preparing to swarm. (True or False)
Queen honey bees normally live longer than either the drone or the worker caste. (True or False)
Wax cappings that cover worker brood cells are flatter than the cappings of honey cells. (True or False)
What are the two ways in which "queen substance" (Queen Mandibular Pheromone, QMP) is distributed within the hive?
Supersedure queen cells are normally produced along the bottom bars of brood combs. (True or False)
Quiz Answers:
Honey will generally be stored above and on each side of the area in which brood is reared. A ring of pollen, one or two inches wide is generally found between the brood and the honey.
True A colony that is making preparations to swarm normally has more occupied queen cells than a colony of the same size and strain that is preparing to supersede its queen.
True Queens typically live much longer than the other members of the colony. If they have not been superseded earlier, queens usually die of old age when three or four years old, though some have been reported to life as long as five, six or even seven years.
False Cappings on honey cell are much flatter than worker brood cappings. Worker cells are sealed with a low dome capping with sone variation in the exact shape, a characteristic which is considered to be under genetic control. The flat wax cappings over honey are often wrinkled, the wrinkles extending across several cells.
"Queen substance" is really a complex of more than a dozen chemicals which are produced by the mandibular glands of the queen. The queen's pheromones are dispersed over her body surface when she grooms herself. The retinue of workers that encircle the queen obtain the chemicals by licking her body or touching it with their antennae. The chemicals are then shared with other members of the colony in regurgitated food.
False Supersedure queen cells are normally produced on the comb surface. In comparison, queen cells produced in preparation for swarming are found along the bottom of the frames.