It also explains why workers forego their own reproduction in favor of helping their queen mother raise more sisters. Their sisters are more closely related to them than their own offspring would be. Queens and workers are both females. Their differences arise from how they were fed while developing as larva. A worker has the same genes as she would have, had she been raised a queen.
Egg laying workers appear in queenless colonies.
Drones produced from their unfertilized eggs are genetically the same as if she were a queen. Cordovan Italian queens are easier to find in a hive. The presence of only cordovan drones in a hive confirms the presence of a cordovan queen. Hygienic behavior Hygienic behavior is expressed by bees uncapping and removing diseased brood. Recessive genes are expressed only if the dominant version is absent.