laying worker

[gds]

Stupid question but I'm hoping. Does 2 eggs in only 1 cell (that I saw) always a laying worker? Another cell had an egg on the side of the cell. I could have just looked for a queen but at the time I figured it wasn't much use. It is a package I just hived last sat.

[xC0000005]

Short answer - no.

Long answer - no. When I had a laying worker, they were apparently unaware of the "two eggs to a cell" thing - they laid eggs all the way around the edge of several cells (looked like a clock with tick marks pointing toward the center of the cell). Laying workers usually take a while to develop, so I'd wait and see in your case. Sometimes an overeager queen does this when she's getting started.

Now, in a week or so, if there are cells everywhere with eggs all over them, I would say you have a problem.

[gds]

Great answer!!! I was wandering after I got to thinking about it. I thought maybe a young inexperienced queen (likely in a package) might do that. And what you said makes since because most of the cells from the new comb was filled w/ food so she didn't have much room to lay in.

[Dan Williamson]

Is it always a laying worker? NO!

A couple of weeks ago I checked a hive that seemed slow. I found some cells with 5 eggs in them. I bet there were 25 cells with multiple eggs in them some on the side etc..... I even found eggs on top of pollen in some cells. There were alot of other cells with only 1 egg in them seemingly perfectly laid. I was beginning to wonder about a laying worker and then I spotted the unmarked queen. I marked the queen and closed up shop for a couple of weeks. Went back in on Sat and had a great brood pattern and full of sealed brood. Looked great.... Guess what.... found the queen again. UNMARKED. Go figure.

My guess... hive was queenless... they raised a few new queens. One or both of the queens had just started laying. I happened to find two of the queens in the hive. I found no multiple eggs this time around... All appears to be well. I'm assuming only one of the queens now remains. But just maybe......... smile.gif

[Dave W]

Too many eggs per cell can result from a young, inexperienced, freshly mated queen. And, a young queen w/ too few bees to cover brood may lay more than 1 egg in a cell for lack of room.

I would check again (looking for good pattern) in about a week.