Queen Confusion

[Insy]

Okay so today's inspection was both a real mess/headache, a couple of stings etc etc.

But my questions are on queens if thats okay.

1. When a virgin queen goes out on mating flights, when HM has successfully mated will she change colour????
2. Will a mated queen from 1 hive leave and join the hive/colony next to it and not be killed???

The split with a virgin queen was from italian stock and when i saw it emerged and running around the frames it was a light brown italian colour, now on inspection today there was eggs in some of the frames!!!!!! WOHOOOO but heres the confusing bit.

Its a really dark queen bee with some glimpse of yellow but it looks more like the mated queen i put in the hive next to it.

But both hives have fresh eggs so, can a virgin queen once mated really change colour so much?

Thanks
Hopes thats not confusing.

 

[Heather]

1) No but may look slightly larger as she matures.
2) Yes, pretty sure.

cannot offer explanation- others may.

 

[Insy]

Yes shes definitely larger this i know happens as now shes mature and mated/laying shes ripe and plump hence why when they go into swarming its hard to see her cause she goes off laying and slims down ready for flight.

But honest to god the italian virgins i made were very light coloured when i looked at them, and this queen is very dark looks like a completely different queen.

But there wasn't any emergency cells in the hive i introduced the mated queen to so surely they are not queenless otherwise i would find lots of them.

Confused.com

 

[Tom Bick]

Newly emerged bees change slightly when they are mature but as to a queen change colour I don’t know but they do get bigger so perhaps its possible they look different and may well be.

 

[Insy]

Tom this is what several of the virgin queens emerged from cells looked like

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/...c-f3f3-4729-b335-db035f35858b_zps8afb4f11.jpg

Now it looked more along the lines of this one

http://sweetmountainfarm.com/doorcounty/honey-maple-syrup/2012/12/QueenBee.jpg

Can it change that much?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Can it change that much?

Yes.

 

[Insy]

Thanks what is the reason for this?

I wonder if the behavior of the new bees will be different that is if i haven't harmed her during the hive manipulations i had to do today.

 

[Tom Bick]

If you have damaged her then depending on the damage the bees will spot it and perhaps decide we had better change her.

The Queen is dead long live the Queen as the bees think.

 

[Insy]

I don't know if she is damaged but i had to do a lot of hive manipulation because of brace comb etc, tbh i was very careful when doing everything so fingers crossed its all okay.

They have some eggs in there as she just started laying in last week so if she is damaged then ill find emergency cells next inspection.

Only time will tell.

 

[Tom Bick]

So where is this brace comb? I get some across the top bars and a bit of a pane but most unlikely to trap the queen, and if you move one frame towards the adjacent frame lightly and then apart again the bees will move out of the away so you don’t squash any bees although you have to repeat this as the stupid bee is often back in the way.

Sometimes I have bundled my way through inspections and often thought that was not great but have never mistakenly killed a queen, dropped one in the grass and just so happened to find her by chance one time but on the whole she is there doing her thing on next inspection.

 

[Insy]

What it was i had 1 hive and it was national and i done a couple of splits with converters attached to fit into langstroth boxes, and plan was when the langstroth frames are built out i would take a converted lang out and put a fresh proper lang in until all converts are out.

Hopefully you understand what i am saying.

But dippy here forgot 2 of the side bar attachments on 2 frames so the top bar was correct length and depths was okay but the side bars were to short against brood box. They filled it was brace combs each side of brood box jamming everything together.

HAHA big mistake on my behalf so had to clean it all out .

 

[Tom Bick]

Mistakes we all make them and often learn more from them.

 

[beeno]

Hi Insy,
Well done for raising a new queen! You think your are seeing things don't you? I cannot remember if it was Hivemaker who said yes to colour change last time. However, is this to do with the three days hardening off after emerging before they venture outside the hive?