Is this a Queen?

[pokerman11]

Just picked up my first packages today. It's really raining now so going to wait until tomorrow to put the packages in.

I was looking at my packages and playing with the 'hobos' on the outside of the cages. I can identify the workers, drones - but then this bee caught my eye. Is this a young queen or perhaps some worker with extra long abdomen?

I know this is a silly question but I've never seen bees up close until today.


http://picasaweb.google.com/yindianguides/Bees?feat=directlink


Sorry my camera is acting up and the battery died. I'll try to get a better picture. As I said I just found this bee on the outside of the package. Once I install my packages I'll know what a queen looks like.

[Joseph Clemens]

Your second pic is a little bit too, out-of-focus, for me to be sure. In the first pic the bees that can be seen are not queens, the bee that is mostly hidden behind the other two, might be a queen, though it is doubtful.

[franktrujillo]

if its a package the queen is in a cage with a few attendants.

[fatscher]

Sorry, that's no queen. Some workers abdomens get long like that. A queen's abdomen rarely has vivid stripes (especially in the case of the Italian race of bees)

[no1cowboy]

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/queen2.jpg here is a pic of a queen to give you an idea of what your looking for

[BEES4U]

Please go to the photo gallery/section of our forum and you will find some excellent queen images.
Or, do a search in our forum. Search is located between New Posts and Quick Links at the top of the page.
Ernie

[RayMarler]

From the tip of the queens head to the tips of her wings, is the same distance as the same measurements on a worker. A queens abdomen extends beyond the tips of her wings by three rings on the abdomen. A workers abdomen barely extends beyond the tips her wings by just a hair. The drones wings barely extend beyond the abdomen, by just a hair.