2 virgins perfectly mated after 3 weeks caged in nucs

[gennetika]

today i checked into 2 mating nucs, whose queens i set free a week ago, after having spent 3 weeks caged inside the nuc, i forgot to free them with the rest of the mating nucs on that batch, so they remained caged inside the nuc. So today that i set them free, they were perfectly mated, great laying pattern, good size, i should have taken a picture, perhaps tomorrow, could anyone explain to me how was that possible?
omar

[Michael Bush]

Three weeks is the outside, but yes, a queen can mate at 3 weeks and be fertile and viable. Any longer and they would end up drone layers after they mate.

http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#letter3

[gennetika]

Three weeks is the outside, but yes, a queen can mate at 3 weeks and be fertile and viable. Any longer and they would end up drone layers after they mate.

http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#letter3

Michael,

I supose this queens are in a perfect shape, and i can use them or sell them as a "normal time" mated queen??

[Michael Bush]

If I knew they took three weeks and they just started to lay I would wait until I see the caps. If they are nice flat worker caps, then they should be fine.

[Eddie Honey]

Are you saying they were virgin queens when you locked them in their mating nucs and three weeks later after being locked up the entire time they are now mated? So they got mated inside the nuc?

[gennetika]

Are you saying they were virgin queens when you locked them in their mating nucs and three weeks later after being locked up the entire time they are now mated? So they got mated inside the nuc?

i'm saying they remained inside a cage, inseide the nuc, i set them free, they went out the nuc to take their mating fligth, returned to the nuc, and started laying.

[Eddie Honey]

Oh..ok..that makes better sense.
I did an experimental split in NJ on March 20th. The queenless hive reared it's own queen and another that I put into a nuc when she was capped. The weather went cold before they hatched and stayed that way for a month after the initial split.

The result...laying queens but it took awhile.
I had to pinch one of them because she layed a shotgun drone pattern in with the worker combs.
The other one is very good though and I've been using her deep as a comb builder to populate nucs and keep other hives strong.