P1010024

A laying worker colony. When a colony beomes 'hopelessly queenless', workers will eventually develop their ovaries (without the inhibition from the open brood and queen pheromone) and lay eggs. The eggs are all unfertilized so all develop into drones. Such colonies are usually doomed unless a miracle happens (about 1% of time some unfertilized eggs will become diploid through a process called thyletoky, but this process is very common in the cape bees, Apis mellifera capensis). May 30, 2003.