Does newly mated queen wait for closed brood to hatch?

[ugcheleuce]

Hello everyone

At the two beekeeping courses I've attended, the two mentoring beekeepers told us two different things and they disagree with each other about it, namely this:

The one beek (commercial honey producer and pollinator) believes that a newly mated queen will wait for all closed brood to hatch before it starts laying, and the other beek (hobbyist but author of a beekeeping manual) thinks that that is just a myth, and that a newly mated queen will start laying irrespective of any closed brood present in the hive.

[The application of this comes when you hang a frame of open brood into a hive that you're unsure of whether the new queen was lost during mating: if you believe the new queen will wait, then you have to remove the frame again if the bees don't draw an emergency cell from it, but if you believe it doesn't matter, then you can safely keep the frame in the hive even if the bees don't draw an emergency cell from it, and give them a little population boost when that frame's bees hatch.]

What are you taught in your beekeeping courses, and/or what do your mentors believe about this?

Thanks
Samuel

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd say no - I think it's an assumption build on the fact that in a swarmed hive the chances are by the time a new queen emerges and gets mated all the brood will have emerged. Introduced queens into hives who have started laying in the presence of sealed brood if that's any indication

 

[ugcheleuce]

...by the time a new queen emerges and gets mated all the brood will have emerged.

I suppose a related question would be: what is the thing that causes a mating queen to stop mating and start laying?

 

[Finman]

I suppose a related question would be: what is the thing that causes a mating queen to stop mating and start laying?

Queen is full of semen and then it starts laying. Mating takes 1-3 days

 

[Bosleeu]

I have seen queens that started laying with plenty of brood around quite a few times. I think it is not a case of them waiting, but just the fact that normally all the brood will have emerged by the time she is mated. Thus I think you can leave the test frame in, others may disagree but that's what I have found.

With supercedure you can sometimes have two queens laying at the same time, meaning the daughter came into lay with sealed and unsealed brood around.

 

[Finman]

Hello everyone



The one beek (commercial honey producer and pollinator) believes that a newly mated queen will wait for all closed brood to hatch before it starts laying, and the other beek (hobbyist but author of a beekeeping manual) thinks that that is just a myth, and that a newly mated queen will start laying irrespective of any closed brood present in the hive

Reason is that queen's brood cycle to mating is such as it is.

Queen cell developes 2 week. From emerging to laying it takes 10 days.
All together 24 days.
Worker brood cycle is 21 days.

You may put a new laying queen into the hive and it starts laying at once.

.another case.

Primary swarm leaves and laying queen. After a week (7days) new queens emerge.

Virgin makes mating flights and starts laying after 10 days. 17 days plus 4 is 21.

If weather delays mating, it seems like queen is waiting something.

 

[B+.]

The one beek (commercial honey producer and pollinator) believes that a newly mated queen will wait for all closed brood to hatch before it starts laying

This is nonsence. I have received queens through the post that were previosly mated on an island. The queen may take a couple of days to return to laying condition after being confined to a cage for the best mart of a week, but, she will certainly lay before the sealed brood I formed the nuc with emerges.
A colony contains several sub-families and it makes no difference to the queens behaviour if the workers are hers or some other queen (although the same may not be true of the workers behaviour towards the queen). Once she is able to lay fertilised eggs, she will.