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Queen questions

3K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  toad 
#1 ·
Saterday the 25th I went to a house to remove a colony. I started around 1 and got done around 9. I cut as much of the brood out as I could put it in a deep and about half filled 9 frames. As I installed with rubber bands I did not notice any queen cells or any eggs. I also never located the queen. After removing all the brood there were still alot of bees left so they all got vacumed, I had hoped I had the queen in the vacume unharmed. I got home around midnight and set the hive were it has going to stay. Sunday morning I put the vacume box on top of the hive body and opened the door, a few hours later most the bess had gone into the hive so I removed the vacume box and put he top on them. Monday the 27th I looked in to see if I had the queen, NO queen but some were around 15 to 20 queen cells.

So I got to thinking I had lost the queen or killed her, after thinging some more I don't think I did. How did the workers have queen cells so fast? Were they queenless before I even stated removing them from the house?

I would like anyone to help me figure this out.

One other question maybe some one could help me with because I have read very conflicting information on this. If I let the queen cells go and I have a virgin queen will she mate with the other colonies I have in my yard or does she need other drones farther away? Does she fly further than the drones?
 
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#2 ·
ok, first, just because you didn't see the queen, doesn't mean you didn't get her.

queen cells tell me you didn't or she didn't survive being got.

I have had them build queen cells in 3 days so they could possibly have them most of the way done in 2. remember they cap the cell on day 6 , so if they are going to make one from an existing egg they need to hurry.

if they were queenless before, there would have been queen cells. either you didn't get her, or she didn't survive.

your virgin queen will fly where she wants, and mate with the drones she wants. they could be on your front pourch, or 3 miles away. remember she is a (teenager) queen. she will do what she wants......
 
#3 ·
As I installed with rubber bands I did not notice any queen cells or any eggs.

Queenless bees usually begin making emergency cells within 2 days of being queenless. Since they made multiple queen cells, it is likely they had eggs to work with. You could always check inside the queen cell and make sure there is a larva in them.

There is always a slight possibility that you do have a queen, and the bees are blaming her on the disturbance to their hive (the cutout) and are trying to supercede her.
 
#4 ·
I ordered a queen form a queen breeder and when I was talking to him he said that drones only flew a mile were queens flew a mile and a half so she would not mate with her brothers, I didn't know how true this was because I have seen University reserch were they said drones would fly up to 7 miles looking for queens
 
#9 ·
Re: Queen questions more help please

As you can see I got these bees the 25th of July. And didn't think I got the queen because of all the queen cells. After removing the queen cells the 27th of July I intrduced the new queen on the 5th of August in her cage of couse. Checked four days later they didn't look like they were ready for her yet so checked the next day. Every thing looked great on the 10th of August so I manually released her on to a cone. I watched her walk around an look for a place to lay all the workers were very acceptive of her, so I closed the box.I know you should wait two weeks to check but, me being impaitiant I looked today the 16th of August. As I looked around the fourth frame I pulled there was a unmarked queen. The queen that I installed was marked, needles to say no marked queen to be found. And still no eggs anywere. I've come to the conclusion that even though I looked multiple times for a queen before i ordered and released the new one one of two things happened. One I had gotten the queen at the time I cut them out and she was failing there fore the queen cells. Second I never saw the virgin queen upon prior inspections. I know I did something wrong,but one thing I don't understand. Why when I released the new queen did all the workers look so accepting? Like I said before I watched her walk around for five mintues no workers looked a bit aggesive twards her.
Can any one tell me why?
 
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