6.3 Egg Laying Behaviour

Question 1

How many eggs can a queen lay per day?

Answer 1

1,500 to 2000 under optimum conditions

Question 2

What can cause a queen to go off lay?

Answer 2

Disease, starvation, lack of forage

Question 3

How can workers vary the rate of queens laying?

Answer 3

Through reducing her food intake and also limiting the number of clean cells.

Question 4

How does the queen know to fertilise eggs?

Answer 4

She measures cell size with her forelegs to determine if it’s a drone or worker cell.

Question 5

What happens in Spring to the queens egg laying rate?

Answer 5

It increases. As there are more workers, they can forage for more pollen and then use this to feed more brood.

Question 6

When does the queen’s egg laying peak?

Answer 6

Between May and June

Question 7

Can queens vary their egg size?

Answer 7

Yes - Amiri et al., (2020) found that queens lay larger eggs in queen cells than worker cells which can result in higher quality off spring. She does this by delaying oviposition and the next egg accquires more yolk.

Question 8

Compared to her body size how many eggs does the queen lay?

Answer 8

She lays more than her body weight in eggs a day. Hence why the need for constant food