Virgin queen time to mate

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Repwoc

Drone Bee
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I have hived a small swarm with, I suspect, a virgin queen. Does anyone have a ball park idea of how long swarm virgin queens take to get mated? Assuming clement weather that is. Do they tend to mate quickly or do they need to sit around for a couple of weeks first?
 
Depending on weather virgins take as long as 28 days before being truly stale.

PH
 
Virgin queen is normally couple of days inside the queen cell. It is ready to fly when you open the piping cell.

Normal case is that queen emerges and is ready to mate at the age of 7 days.
Then queen needs 2-3 to make. Alltogether, if weathers are good, queen is 10 days old when it start to lay.
 
Normal case is that queen emerges and is ready to mate at the age of 7 days.

Does anyone have any idea if virgin queens swarm as soon as they emerge or is there a day or two gap between emerging and swarming?
 
Does anyone have any idea if virgin queens swarm as soon as they emerge or is there a day or two gap between emerging and swarming?

When in normal birth when virgin emerge, is it is not capable fly. Often they are light color and have soft wings. Swarm virgins are eager to rise on their wings.

I have seen hundreds of virgins when they emerge after swarming. They rush out and start to kill each others. When swarm leave, open the hive and look where they are piping. Some are walking on combs and most are still inside queen cell.

A swarm may have several queens.
 
Hello,
16 days is the average - that is if you have settled weather during the mating period.
Best regards
Norton.
 
Not being funny here but we have 16 days in Cyprus as an average, we have S. Coby et all from the states giving figures but are they relevant to this cold and at times down right dismal climate?

Earliest I have seen personally is 7 days, and longest was (If I remember r rightly) getting on for 28 days.

Not having kept records of timings my perception is that just under three weeks was about normal for AMM. Much less was very lucky and indicated a rare spell of good weather.

I know I get scoffed at for my weather comments but the bottom line is it makes a huge difference in the UK.

PH
 

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