[Einar5107]

Captured a swarm end of May. Queen was laying wall to wall eggs. Late June I saw supercedure cells. I left so nature would take its course. Yesterday I saw a queen walking around but nobody paying any attention to her.

Didn’t see any eggs or brood at all. She was nice and fat so I assume she has mated at some point.

The question is would this be the old queen that has petered out completely or a newly mated queen who hasn’t started laying? If new why are the bees ignoring her?

 

[Michael Bush]

She may be a virgin. It can take up to three weeks for a queen to get mated and laying after she emerges. Usually it averages out to about two weeks.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm