It is small enough to use as a queen rearing nuc but large enough to overwinter. Such dual-purpose hives can increase the season for queen rearing and sale. Workers, for example, have ovaries and lay unfertilized, male, eggs. However, if one worker lays an egg another normally eats it. LASI is investigating how workers can tell which eggs are queen-laid and how some workers lay eggs that escape policing.
Queen fighting Another conflict occurs between virgin queens in a swarming colony.
LASI is investigating the tactics used by fighting queens, particularly their ability to break up a fight by releasing a noxious chemical when they are in a losing position. By keeping a colony in an observation hive the waggle dances made-by foragers can be observed and decoded. Foragers use this dance to tell recruit bees where the flowers are. Research at LASI is comparing the dancing, and hence the foraging, in large and small population colonies. Other LASI research has shown that workers will travel huge distances, averaging 6km, to heather moors.