Producing eggs from a single worker honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Because a solitary worker honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) will not lay eggs, eggs were produced from small populations of caged workers. First, worker bees from four colonies were evaluated for their rate of worker ovary development. Groups of 25 workers were kept in incubator cages at 34 +/- 1 degree C, and each cage was given an empty section of drone comb and unlimited supplies of honey, water, and pollen. Workers from colonies A and B began laying eggs rapidly (about 9 d), workers from colony D were intermediate (about 12 d), and workers from colony C required about 25 d. Five workers from colony A were mixed with 25 workers from the same colony, from colony B, or from colony C and maintained for 10 d. The five workers developed their ovaries most rapidly with their own sisters or with workers from colony C and slowest with unrelated, fast-developing workers from colony B (P 0.05). When a single worker from colony A was caged with 25 workers from colony C, all eggs were laid by the worker from colony A. Overall, 50% (19/38) of the workers from colony A became egg layers when they were caged alone with workers from colony C. Although workers from colony A developed their ovaries sooner than workers from colony C, the two groups had the same number of ovarioles. Yet, among sisters, ovaries with more ovarioles were significantly more developed than ovaries with fewer ovarioles