Virgin Queens

[stoneleighhouse]

Hi
How long will a virgin Queen wait to mate in the hive?

 

[chrisb]

they usualy mate in about two to three weeks dependent on weather
this is a mature queen 19 days from emerging

 

[misterbee82]

The information I have seen is that a virgin queen flys and mates with up to 20 drones.

 

[REDWOOD]

Couldn't tell you, read all sorts of stuff about times, how many flight and drones and all differ, one thing for sure the amount of drones goes up each year.

 

[nantmoel]

Couldn't tell you, read all sorts of stuff about times, how many flight and drones and all differ, one thing for sure the amount of drones goes up each year.

They sperm count must be going down, hence the number of drones going up! lol

 

[chrisb]

yes, most times it is like how long is a piece of string
when you want something to happen it wont, when you do not want it to happen it will

 

[MerryBee]

From emergence to laying is a minimum of 8 days. But more often it will be 2 to 3 weeks.

For a good explanation see here

 

[bontbee]

http://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/newbooks/koeniger-ellis-connor-mating-biology-of-honey-bees/

This is a fab little book

 

[Brian Bush]

Hi
How long will a virgin Queen wait to mate in the hive?

A virgin queen must mate in under 3 weeks from emergence. She is no good after that. Yes she does mate with up to 20 drones the average being 14 or 15 depending on which researcher you read. It can be up to 3 weeks from emergence before she starts laying

 

[Poly Hive]

In poor weather she can take in my experience another two weeks to even 5 and be a good queen.

PH

 

[Finman]

A virgin queen must mate in under 3 weeks from emergence. She is no good after that.

That is too narrow mating gap.

Queen mates after 7 days old. 3 weeks after that is realistic mating time, but who knows what will happen.

.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A virgin queen must mate in under 3 weeks from emergence. She is no good after that.

That's 95% of my queens written off then!

 

[misterbee82]

I know there's a time frame for her to mate, but I believe it is something that's estimated, because it is largely based on environmental factors. Like temperature, weather (example: rain and wind), overall I believe there are a lot of factors that determine the time frame.