Queen maiden fight - colony reaction?

[Ivor Kemp]

Has anyone actually been present when a new Queen either hatched and/or took her maiden flight?

I performed a Demaree artificial swarm and know that the capped cells were due to hatch either today or tomorrow.

The hive with them in has been virtually dormant up until this lunchtime when suddenly thousands of bees poured out either on the front of the hive or flying round and round.

So much so I thought they were going to swarm.

All though settled down and everything went back after about twenty minutes.

Does a Virgin Queen going on her mating flight cause this sort of colony reaction does anyone know?

 

[poshpikey]

I think so. There was a clip on you tube of this happening.

 

[Ivor Kemp]

Yes the one I saw was this http://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2013/sep/06/queen-bee-wedding-flight-video
but it appears to be a small cloud of drones chasing HM. It doesn't show what is happening at the hive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I performed a Demaree artificial swarm and know that the capped cells were due to hatch either today or tomorrow.

If the queen is due to emerge either today or tomorrow then she is not going to be ready for a mating flight for a wee while yet, are you sure you got your maths right?
Saw a queen off on her mating flight last year and the bees all piled out after her, filled the apiary then sheepishly queued up to go back into the nuc.
Sounds a bit like what you witnessed

 

[ringtor]

Watched a small nuc let the queen out (mating flight?) with the rest of the bees following. Sadly the nuc was empty today - I wonder what happened?

 

[Smorning]

Virgin queen

I witnessed what I think was a virgin queen emerging from the hive maybe returning from a mating flight hopefully ?. The virgin was on the hive and bees were surrounding her initially I though it was another swarm, what a pain !. Anyway the long and short of it was virgin was seen and she entered adjacent hive that I am confident was queen less and bees followed with N glands in evidence, fingers crossed all goes well.

 

[Ivor Kemp]

If the queen is due to emerge either today or tomorrow then she is not going to be ready for a mating flight for a wee while yet, are you sure you got your maths right?
Saw a queen off on her mating flight last year and the bees all piled out after her, filled the apiary then sheepishly queued up to go back into the nuc.
Sounds a bit like what you witnessed

Thanks all.

Yes certain with my maths.

Maybe they were just reacting to a new Queen hatching and thought "oh bloody hell we better get busy"!!

I certainly never saw a small flight of drones or anything like on the video link above.

 

[leonotron]

Watched a small nuc let the queen out (mating flight?) with the rest of the bees following. Sadly the nuc was empty today - I wonder what happened?

Swarm?