[Sherpa1]

Received shipment with 2 Queens today and noticed that there is piping coming from the mini-battery box. Does this mean that one of the queens is a virgin or do mated queens also pipe? Thanks.

 

[RicDuck]

Mated queens pipe when near other queens - so do virgin queens.

 

[Sherpa1]

Ric,
Thanks.

 

[Hobie]

Real newbie here... what IS "piping"?

 

[tarheit]

Queens make a repetitive chirping sound.
You can hear one here: http://hemingwaysouthcarolina.com/sounds/queenpiping.wav

No one really seems to know why they do it though their are lots of claims why. It's commonly heard with caged queens (virgins or mated) though they do it in the hive as well.

-Tim

 

[danno1800]

That was GREAT! Thanks for posting it, I've always wondered what queen piping sounded like. Thanks again!

 

[Michael Bush]

I've had ten or so in a battery box and they can get very vocal.

 

[BaldyLocks]

I was in my hive last night and heard one piping...she was right near some supercedure cells when I heard her (or maybe one in the cells?) piping. Anyhow, I only saw the queen for a moment and then the other bees immediately balled her. It was very odd. Anyhow, I closed it all back up and figured they will sort it out. I will check again in a few days and see what happens...Even if they killed the queen (she is/was a good one...would be a shame), the capped cells should provide a replacement. I guess omething must have been wrong with her since they were replacing but I couldn't tell what it was...anyhow, that's why I left it up to them...but it was cool to hear the piping!

 

[raymond vaughan]

micheal what is a battery box ?

 

[Michael Bush]

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/catalog/page31.html

 

[raymond vaughan]

thanks michael now I know what a battery box is

 

[sierrabees]

Just an interesting observation. I use one of those plastic tubes with a plunger to catch and hold queens for marking. If things are going well(they seldom do) and there are only a few minutes between marking one queen and the next, I often hear the second queen piping. I assume some of the earlier queens pherimones remain in the tube and convince the new queen that she has a competetator near by. On the other hand I have a queen bank with multiple queens confinded side by side in cages and have never heard piping from them.