Virgin Queen

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hoomin_erra

New Bee
Joined
May 17, 2010
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56
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Location
Scotland
Hive Type
Smith
Number of Hives
1
May sound like a silly question.

How long from the time of hatching, until i should start to see eggs from a virgin queen?
 
Not a silly question, i asked the very same thing the other day, to which i was told a couple of weeks, possibly longer if its a strong colony. (nice clear sunny days help the process)

:)

Best to leave them alone from time of emerging while she embarks on her mating flights, i worked out roughly when my queen was due to emerge, i then gave them a fortnight before going back in, next inspection the frames were full of eggs, lovely sight and well worth the wait.
 
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All of mine came from the same hive & were split at the same time. Nucs made up 21 May , all queens had hatched by the 9 June , 21 June eggs spotted ( no more than 3 days old ) in 2 , 30 June for the last one before any eggs were seen
 
Ok, so i will leave them alone for 2 weeks.

Hmm, that's gonna be hard. I enjoy opening them up and inspecting them.
 
I'm in a similar state. Dodgy colony, added test frame, went on holiday which helped control my curiosity, found sealed QCs had developed so have left the alone. I estimated the Virgin Q would emerged around 28/29th June and now I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting......I soooo wanna have a look-see! but not before the coming weekend.

Patience is definitely a beekeeping skill I'm finding hard to develop.
 
I had similar situation to Dewin Dwl, but perhaps 2 weeks ahead. Patience is the key. I inspected last week after leaving it alone for over 3 weeks. Found lots of brood, capped and uncapped as well as eggs. Did not see the queen.

It might be worth mentioning that there was lots of stores and pollen in the BB, and little activity in the super. Will they start moving the honey to the super to give the queen more spare? I hope they do, otherwise the queen will run out of space quickly.

Hazem
 
After your virgin has mated you will often find the brood box is stuffed with honey.

Use your hive tool. Bruise the cappings and they will take the hint and move the honey.

PH
 
Thank you PH. I always look forward to you answers and comments.
 
Hmmm, good point, there was a hell of a lot of stores in the BB.

What do you call bruising?Scratch with a tool? Or just push with a finger? Or do i just uncap it all?

And will going in again run the risk of the queen leaving?
 

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