Virgin Queen?

[StephenT]

I would guess this is a virgin queen but have never seen one before.
Was just about to put a test frame in and my wife spotted her. She‘s not as fat as our other queens and has more of a pointy bum. She was running around a lot as well. Inspected the hive just now that was the result of a merger on 13 July. Saw medium sized larvae today but no eggs, small larvae or the queen. Just under a week ago when we inspected there was one ‘hatched’ QC. Looks to me like the queenless part of the merger did the old queen in and decided to make another.

 

[StephenT]

Managed to change the video format to one I can upload. @Ania115 spotted her.
View attachment Untitled 2.mp4

 

[Erichalfbee]

They do get their skates on, virgin queens.
Nice video

 

[StephenT]

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. Lots of eggs and larvae now
View attachment queen_hive2_140821.mp4

 

[Erichalfbee]

Lovely fat orange queen

 

[StephenT]

It's just amazing how she's transformed after mating. First Princess to Queen that we have ever seen. She's the daughter of a BS Honeybees Buckfast we got last year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I keep BS. They are generally great queens.

 

[Sutty]

She's a lot faster than any of mine!

 

[oliver90owner]

Looking at all the capped cells, it doesn’t seem like a virgin? If they are as flighty as that, I might well want to replace her. I like queens that are quiet on the frames.

 

[StephenT]

Looking at all the capped cells, it doesn’t seem like a virgin? If they are as flighty as that, I might well want to replace her. I like queens that are quiet on the frames.

We assumed she was a virgin in the first video and then mated in the second video a couple of weeks later. She seemed quite ‘runny’ on the second video so will see how she progresses.