Queens - judging signs of quality?

[beecology]

Hi all,

Aside from observing the laying rate and brood pattern, can you assess the quality of a queen by her appearance?

One of my virgins started laying the other day and is laying well, but she looks quite a runt and is like an Olympic sprinter across the frames.

The old queen is also laying well but she is much slower and possibly a touch bigger.

I ask as I am uniting and want to keep the best queen.

I have compared them both on the following criteria to help me make my final choice;

Age, colony docility, laying ability and brood pattern, swarming tendency. So can I add size and outward appearance to that list?



thanks in advance

 

[enrico]

If they are both adequate/equal in every other sense you might as well pick the pretty one!
E

 

[ratcatcher]

forget the pretty one, the fat ugly ones always do more

 

[BeeJayBee]

Ask two beekeepers and you're sure to get at least two different answers!

 

[Davelin]

forget the pretty one, the fat ugly ones always do more

That's what my mate always said to me when we were eyeing up the talent at the local hop!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Blondes come from Essex, chirpy ones from luton airport.

I'm sooo interested in this thread. Want to know how a laying virgin can be anything but NBG!

Seems the OP needs to read up on colony life!

 

[BeeJayBee]

One of my virgins started laying the other day and is laying well, but she looks quite a runt and is like an Olympic sprinter across the frames.

Want to know how a laying virgin can be anything but NBG!

Aargh! Well spotted, as usual, RAB!

 

[Ben90]

A lot of new queens run around a lot and then slow down after a month or so. Same for size. I've seen them fatten up progressively over a couple of weeks when they start to lay.

 

[oliver90owner]

Aargh! Well spotted, as usual, RAB!

Also spotted this is the 23rd thread started by the OP in about the same time scale as another new poster.

I do wonder about the status of this one, just like the other.

RAB

 

[thebhoy]

Blondes come from Essex, chirpy ones from luton airport.

I'm sooo interested in this thread. Want to know how a laying virgin can be anything but NBG!

Seems the OP needs to read up on colony life!

Rab, haven't you heard the story that Christmas is about....another laying virgin

 

[oliver90owner]

At today's population, she would be one in about 4 1/2 billion. That is without taking into account all the other females before and since. Of course that doesn't mean there have been no others, but most claims have certainly been unfounded and religion doesn't allow it anyway. Jesus was supposedly unique!

So going on that, I would say the OP is on a loser.

 

[beecology]

Blondes come from Essex, chirpy ones from luton airport.

I'm sooo interested in this thread. Want to know how a laying virgin can be anything but NBG!

Seems the OP needs to read up on colony life!

I didn't think this needed explaining for obvious reasons, maybe should have stated newly mated queen or young queen recently a virgin, for those pedants with nothing better to write?

Seems RAB needs to read up on how to get a life, let alone colony life!

 

[beecology]

Aargh! Well spotted, as usual, RAB!

Also spotted this is the 23rd thread started by the OP in about the same time scale as another new poster.

I do wonder about the status of this one, just like the other.

RAB

Is this how you spend your time? For what its worth, I haven't checked how many threads you've started, posted or read as that would really be a sad waste of my time. Instead, I'll leave such pursuits to the train spotters and traffic wardens or the beekeeping forum equivalent in this case, those obviously starved of attention or real human contact

 

[oliver90owner]

I didn't think

Correct! Unfortuately it sums up quite a lot of thread starters on the forum. However, most are prepared to change, learn, think for themselves and become proficient beekeepers. They then realise that beekeeping is not some mystic art or craft but a very simple pleasant pastime or hobby. Some even progress to bee farmers. Then there are those like beesrob.

Get a good beekeeping book and read it is my advice. Use the index.

Btw, you might find it mildly educational, in parts, if you scan through the list of 45 threads I have started over the last five years and read some of the pertinent ones. Yes, 45 in 5 years, not 24 in 6 weeks! At your rate that would be over a thousand in five years. I cannot honestly see the rate diminishing in the near future as you seem to need your hand holding at every little stage.

Might be better for you to get yourself a mentor. On second thoughts, they would be getting tired of your incessant, mostly inconsequential, questions and would, by now, be ignoring your phone calls!

Have a nice day and do at least think through your questions before asking them. That way you might avoid the simple and obvious answers that you don't expect. Good laying virgins! Whatever next?

 

[Ely]

forget the pretty one, the fat ugly ones always do more

They all look the same in the dark anyway

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At today's population, she would be one in about 4 1/2 billion. That is without taking into account all the other females before and since. Of course that doesn't mean there have been no others, but most claims have certainly been unfounded and religion doesn't allow it anyway. Jesus was supposedly unique!

So going on that, I would say the OP is on a loser.

I didn't think this needed explaining for obvious reasons, maybe should have stated newly mated queen or young queen recently a virgin, for those pedants with nothing better to write?

Seems RAB needs to read up on how to get a life, let alone colony life!

Is this how you spend your time? For what its worth, I haven't checked how many threads you've started, posted or read as that would really be a sad waste of my time. Instead, I'll leave such pursuits to the train spotters and traffic wardens or the beekeeping forum equivalent in this case, those obviously starved of attention or real human contact

I didn't think

Correct! Unfortuately it sums up quite a lot of thread starters on the forum. However, most are prepared to change, learn, think for themselves and become proficient beekeepers. They then realise that beekeeping is not some mystic art or craft but a very simple pleasant pastime or hobby. Some even progress to bee farmers. Then there are those like beesrob.

Get a good beekeeping book and read it is my advice. Use the index.

Btw, you might find it mildly educational, in parts, if you scan through the list of 45 threads I have started over the last five years and read some of the pertinent ones. Yes, 45 in 5 years, not 24 in 6 weeks! At your rate that would be over a thousand in five years. I cannot honestly see the rate diminishing in the near future as you seem to need your hand holding at every little stage.

Might be better for you to get yourself a mentor. On second thoughts, they would be getting tired of your incessant, mostly inconsequential, questions and would, by now, be ignoring your phone calls!

Have a nice day and do at least think through your questions before asking them. That way you might avoid the simple and obvious answers that you don't expect. Good laying virgins! Whatever next?

please - no bickering in the nursery!

 

[beecology]

please - no bickering in the nursery!

I think RAB illustrates perfectly the lifecycle of man, starting out as an infant and ending like an infant

 

[Ely]

I think RAB illustrates perfectly the lifecycle of man, starting out as an infant and ending like an infant

Whoa there. Enough of the sexism. I've met more than my fair share of women that have never grown up from the daddy's little princess attitude.

 

[madasafish]

As per the Riddle of the Sphinx.

Οὐρανὸς πρῶτος τοῦ παντὸς ἐδυνάστευσε κόσμου. γήμας δὲ Γῆν ἐτέκνωσε πρώτους τοὺς ἑκατόγχειρας προσαγορευθέντας, Βριάρεων Γύην Κόττον, οἳ μεγέθει τε ἀνυπέρβλητοι καὶ δυνάμει καθειστήκεσαν, χεῖρας μὲν ἀνὰ ἑκατὸν κεφαλὰς δὲ ἀνὰ πεντήκοντα ἔχοντες.

 

[oliver90owner]

My last reply on this thread, being as I was personally attacked by this apparrently infantile individual and also in the light of the recent Judas thead.

Beecology might be right about the last half of his post, but I can assure him that I have a long way to go before I get back to the nappy stage. And I, at least, got out of the infant nappy stage a long time ago. But it does seem clear from some recent posts (and one PM) that there are some who have never grown out of the infant nappy stage and likely never will, ever.

However we already know he doesn't think - he said so in an earlier post - so I will leave the nappy-wearing beekeepers to their own nappy-soiling habits and may their super quality, laying virgins provide them with a good crop in due course well, a good crop of drones anyway. Ha ha ha.

I can now forget this thread and look forward to the next comical idea emanating from wherever it may appear.