Is this a queen?

[Blaz]

Hi - this is my third year keeping bees - a steep learning curve! Last week my bees swarmed - I caught the swarm and have housed in a spare hive. They are drawing comb nicely. I searched for the queen and think I have her - but in my inexperienced eyes it could be fat/nicely coloured worker? I've read that queens can be smaller than usual before mating? Anyway, photo attached. Can anyone give me their views - is this a queen? The swarm left the old hive on Sunday 28th May.
Thank you in advance and sorry for the dumb question!

 

[RJC]

yes, it is. Well spotted.

 

[Blaz]

Wow! Thanks RJC, I'll let her get on with things then. Hopefully she will mate soon and get laying...

 

[yeogi75]

if you see the bees around her and look where there wings end compared to the queen that's the easy way to look for amongst a lot of bees welldone

 

[Glenviewbee]

Nice looking queen She's quite orange in comparison to the queens in my colonies

 

[Millet]

With the predicament i have been in at the moment i would have wet myself if i spotted that on one of my frames..well spotted and what a good picture to boot.

 

[Erichalfbee]

yay.....and she has red legs too

 

[tudorcd]

Yes, one of the signs of a small or virgin queen is that the legs are too big ...

 

[oliver90owner]

Last week my bees swarmed - I caught the swarm and have housed in a spare hive. They are drawing comb nicely. I searched for the queen and think I have her - but in my inexperienced eyes it could be fat/nicely coloured worker?-

This does not make sense! If it was the prime swarm you are referring too, the queen will already be mated - it will be the one from your hive before it swarmed. She should be laying within about three days.


If a virgin, you likely lost a prime swarm a week previously and there may have been more than a single cast.

Only cast swarms will normally have a virgin.

The above assumes the original colony did not contain a clipped queen.

 

[WoodenBeam]

The legs are a give away. i'm a leg man myself - they always catch my eye when looking for queens.

 

[wightbees]

To me she looks a bit stumpy , could be the photo but just how it looks to me.

 

[beeno]

To me she looks a bit stumpy , could be the photo but just how it looks to me.

Me too. Could be a pseudo queen.

 

[Blaz]

This is definitely not the original queen - she was much longer and not quite so shy! This queen is a fast mover and wanted to "hide" away on the reverse side of the frame. I work in the week so no idea if I lost the prime swarm and this is a cast. It was about rugby ball size?

I do know that the original hive is still full of bees and whilst checking I saw another queen very similar to the one in the photo. Additionally the bees seemed quite angry - sounded different and were very willing to attack so I didn't outstay my welcome. I think this queen was also a virgin and hadn't started laying yet hence their mood.

Flip, soooooo much to learn! But heck utterly fascinating too!

 

[MartinL]

With the predicament i have been in at the moment i would have wet myself if I spotted that on one of my frames...

It's an age thing!

On a serious note, it does take younger eyes to spot these things at speed. I don't wear reading glasses under my veil because they blurr everything more than 2 feet away!

Spotting eggs out of direct sunlight is difficult for us old gits!

 

[maddydog]

As per RAB.

What's a psuedo queen, a laying worker? Orange legs a give away for me.

 

[beeno]

As per RAB.

What's a psuedo queen, a laying worker? Orange legs a give away for me.

A pseudo queen (apologies for typo) is a larvae which has only developed certain queen characteristics due to poor nutrition and will most probably not be any good. However, there may still be a fully developed queen present.

 

[Beefriendly]

Only cast swarms will normally have a virgin.

I think virgins in prime swarms alongside the old queen is more common than is generally realised. Martin Lindauer found several in his early studies on prime swarms.
Only last month I hived a swarm with a clipped queen from underneath a hive. I saw her as I captured it and she was there the next day but had disappeared 2 days later, no eggs no brood. A test frame (I thought I may have damaged her) and no queen cells drawn. Today I marked and clipped a new queen, so there was at least one virgin plus the old queen in that prime swarm.

 

[oliver90owner]

A clipped queen situation is not the 'normal'. They likely swarmed a week previous. It may well have been a casf swarm with the old queen caught up in it. As I said - normally....

 

[Millet]

I think virgins in prime swarms alongside the old queen is more common than is generally realised. Martin Lindauer found several in his early studies on prime swarms.
Only last month I hived a swarm with a clipped queen from underneath a hive. I saw her as I captured it and she was there the next day but had disappeared 2 days later, no eggs no brood. A test frame (I thought I may have damaged her) and no queen cells drawn. Today I marked and clipped a new queen, so there was at least one virgin plus the old queen in that prime swarm.

As i was saying yesterday my old Queen was superseded she never swarmed by the amount of bees still in the hive, the first Virgin Queen to emerge from the three superseded Queen cells did swarm and half of the bees went with her.

 

[maddydog]

As i was saying yesterday my old Queen was superseded she never swarmed by the amount of bees still in the hive, the first Virgin Queen to emerge from the three superseded Queen cells did swarm and half of the bees went with her.

Fascinating, so you're saying the old queen was still in the box and a virgin swarmed?? New one on me.