# Fertilized or unfertilized egg



## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

drone1952 said:


> Hi all,
> I want to ask you a question. Last Sunday it was the first time when I ask myself about this looking for the answer but not find. How the queen know that the cell it’s a drone cell and put unfertilized egg or it’s worker cell and lay fertilized egg. Please be so kind and help me.
> George


My understanding (and I may be wrong) is that she measures the cell size with her antennae before laying the egg.


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## Riki (Jan 31, 2007)

I was told by a professor of USP (Universidade de São Paulo - University of São Paulo) that the queen measures the cell size with its hairy forelegs


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## nsmith1957 (Sep 7, 2006)

Bet that is a cute little tape measure she uses.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>How the queen know that the cell it’s a drone cell and put unfertilized egg or it’s worker cell and lay fertilized egg. Please be so kind and help me.

Front legs.

"The mated queen can lay an egg, which becomes a drone, or add sperm to the egg to produce a worker - if the fertilised egg is reared in a queen cell and fed copiously, a queen is produced. The queen determines the type of cell by measuring with her front legs - worker cells are smaller than drone cells."

http://www.bbka.org.uk/articles/life_cycle_apis_mellifera.php


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

That said, there was one professor in my II class last year who did research on this topic (I'd have to look up his name if anyone is interested). He found if you give a queen drone cells only, she will lay fertilized eggs that will mature into normal workers in a certain percentage of them. So while the size of the cell seems to be a big cue, it's not the only thing.

-Tim


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## Cristian Radut (Jul 15, 2007)

Hi everybody!

If the front legs are responsable for deciding what the egg will become, why 
queens that miss one of their front legs lay eggs perfectly normal? They won't lay as many eggs, but will lay normal.

I mean, the brood will have the same percentage (the proportion between workers and drones) as the one of a normal queen. Differences are only about the amount of bees, not the proportion between bees and drones...


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## Cristian Radut (Jul 15, 2007)

Nobody can say something about this common situation or haven't you met such situations?


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## JohnBeeMan (Feb 24, 2004)

If it is all done by front legs measuring the cell size, why do I see drone cells at times in HSC (all cells the same size)? Also the queen cups are even larger so why do they get a fertilized egg? Seems to me that she may bee a little smarter than the size of her legs!!


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