mated queen question

[adamant]

once she mates in flight and she re-enters the hive to do her job does she run out of sperm and have to re mate again?

[Rick 1456]

If she has not mated well, multiple drones, she could run out of sperm. If she does, and it has/ does happen, she will become a drone layer. She will not leave the hive to mate again. The bees will still recognize her as their queen. You will find drone larvae in worker cells.
I had this happen to me last season. I thought I had a laying worker hive. I had caught it early so I tried to re queen. (Some would argue that does not work, but I have had success before. ) When I went into the hive two weeks later, I found a queen, but not the one I had introduced. I made them Queen less and gave them a new one.

[DC Bees]

The other day i found one of my nucs had a queen that dried up"drone layer",so i pulled her and combined them with a struggling nuc that came from a cut out in February.I peaked in yesterday and she had eggs in four frames,looking good.

[TriJim]

We still have a 'blue dot' queen producing lots of worker bees - saw her yesterday. Despite starting her third year, she is still going strong. We got her in a Georgia package (which some report providing lesser queens). Good luck.