virgin queens - when will they begin to lay

[beesleybees]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question

when a virgin queen emerges and swarms. How long does it take her to begin laying? i know it can take up to 3 weks or so for her to mate but will she lay anything while she is waiting to mate? or once mated, will she get on with the job straight away

thanks

 

[VEG]

I have had one take best part of 5 weeks to lay.

 

[protheroe]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question

when a virgin queen emerges and swarms. How long does it take her to begin laying? i know it can take up to 3 weks or so for her to mate but will she lay anything while she is waiting to mate? or once mated, will she get on with the job straight away

thanks

once she is mated it normally takes a few days to start laying and she wont lay until then.

 

[Foxylad]

In the cold weather the chances of mating flights are not great.

Warm weather at end of the week, hopefully.

 

[Poly Hive]

She will not lay anything whilst waiting as she has no sperm to fertilise the eggs with.

She can take some weeks to mate with the weather being the deciding factor, and usually after a month she is considered to be past her best and "stale"

PH

 

[Bucks_Boy]

I have had one take best part of 5 weeks to lay.

More than once ..

 

[bobster]

In my experience this year I had a nearly capped QC on Tuesday April the 8th. This was the day I did my split/AS.

So by my reckoning she would have been out by Friday the 20th April. I checked on the 8th May. No eggs, no larvae. I didn't try and look for her. The lack of any eggs/larvae was enough. Up until then weather was cold and wet. So she'd been in there a good couple of weeks.

So I placed a comb of eggs/larvae from another colony to give them a second chance on the 8th of May. Then I checked on the 19th, and Lo!, eggs + larvae in a good laying pattern in in about six combs. So this must have been the queen that emerged in April who waited for better weather before mating.

So either they're all drones (I don't think they are, they are only eggs/larvae nothing capped yet) or the magic has happened.

In rather a long winded answer about four weeks for me.

Bobster

 

[beesleybees]

Thanks for all your replies.

i have a couple of swarms that i have collected so not sure if the queens are mated or virgin queens so have given the syrup to give them some help drawing out foundation but Im resisting the tempation to look in as I do not want to disturb and virgin queen who might be trying to get mated

on the other hand, I had a hive that had capped swarm cells along the bottom of the brood frames but the original queen was still present! I did an AS and left 2 sealed cells in the original hive and moved the queen into a nuc which was placed on the original site This was done on saturday the 12th. I have inspected today the original hive with the queen cells in and non have opened.
.
can someone confirm these are queen cells and if these are the right type to leave in place as I read on the forum that queen cells must be of a certain size. not too big and not too small.

any advice much appreciated

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39955962@N08/7241791872/

 

[Shabro]

I must admit I'm an impatient bugger and I'm now waiting on 3 virgin queens to get mated after collecting a cast and then I ASed one hive and they still decided to carry on creating swarm cells after putting them on new foundation...... I've just let her get on with it and swarm, unlucky that I missed her, as its an out apiary but hopefully we will get some good weather ahead to get some matings done.

 

[beesleybees]

bump

 

[VEG]

looks like 2 maybe 3 queen cells in the bottom left of that frame

 

[beesleybees]

looks like 2 maybe 3 queen cells in the bottom left of that frame

thats exactly what i thought veg but there were 2 were sealed shut last week and on opening today (9th day) they were still sealed shut.

im unsure what to do now. I still have the old queen as backup. should i wait a few more days and if no luck, should i place the old queen back in with the original hive?

 

[beebreeder]

be carefull they are known to re seal a q/cell after she is out sometimes with a worker inside robbing out the unused food