Questions from a bee enthusiast..

[shmiusa]

We have a bee enthusiast in Chennai, South India who has been living with bees for over 25 years. He is our only source to assist and set up hives. He has the following questions:

1. What time the virgin queen goes out for mating? Why the time is selected?

2. The first queen emerges out from the queen cell, it kills the other undeveloped queens and in doing so does it select any specific method to kill? if yes, why such method?

3. How the new queen gets so much energy to kill the other queen?

We would be delighted hearing from experienced members of this forum.

[shmiusa]

Reply from Heaflaw:

Welcome

I hope others with more knowledge answer, but I'll try:

According from my notes from Dave Tarpy, Extension Apiculturalist with NC State Univ, virgin queens fly between 3:00 and 5:00 PM in clear weather, temperature above 60 degrees Farenheit and wind speed below 10MPH.

From what I have read the first queen tears a hole in the side of other queen cells. She may only start to do so and the workers finish the job and I damage the unemerged queen so that he dies.

Sometimes, the first queen will not find all the queen cells, another will emerge and they may fight to the death. This is the only time a queen uses her stinger.

[ralph3]

1. What time the virgin queen goes out for mating? Why the time is selected?

I've seen them leave as early as 10:00 and have seen them missing in the hive all the way up to 19:00.

I started checking for the queen's presence in the hive after 19:00. They were always there. Also you will witness them with the endophallus hanging out quite often then.

2. The first queen emerges out from the queen cell, it kills the other undeveloped queens and in doing so does it select any specific method to kill? if yes, why such method?

3. How the new queen gets so much energy to kill the other queen?

Not all queens tear down cells. I've got a queen I cutout back in July that will not tear down a cell. All of her daughters that are brown will tear down cells, but all of her daughters that are black will not.

I can cage her for 24 hours and they will start cells. Release her and they will continue to finish the cells out. This goes against everything I've read.

Actually if this line performs well. I could select them so that you could raise queens from a perfectly functional queenright hive without the use of queen excluders and other tricks. Just cage her for a day. Release her. Then cut cells when capped.

[Michael Bush]

1. What time the virgin queen goes out for mating? Why the time is selected?

She flies about the same times as the drones. That varies somewhat with the weather and the length of days for that time of year. But early afternoon is typical.

2. The first queen emerges out from the queen cell, it kills the other undeveloped queens and in doing so does it select any specific method to kill? if yes, why such method?

She stings the unemerged queens in the abdomen through the cell. She may or may not tear down some of the cell before doing this.

3. How the new queen gets so much energy to kill the other queen?

She has very little energy at first. She is frantically looking for food. After she has some food she then will start looking for queen cells.