Joined
·
673 Posts
Checked a mature hive today and found that the queen had lost her wings. Not DWV, just like broken off. Anyone had that happen? Her laying pattern is not very good, but no supercedure cells being built.
View attachment 55605
Had a Couple of Queens with missing wings just like that, Were Laying and keeping colony Going, The mating yard was wright next to a county side road and they would spray mosquitos in about August with a mist, I ask the county not to spray there in front of my mating yard , they were nice and complied. But I learned that day they DO NOT spray an insecticide, It some kind of spray, it just Dissolves there wings and they cant fly.Checked a mature hive today and found that the queen had lost her wings. Not DWV, just like broken off. Anyone had that happen? Her laying pattern is not very good, but no supercedure cells being built.
View attachment 55605
The Queens I Found were new Queens in a mating nuc, Both were in the same yard and the same time of the year.99% of the time this is caused by a young queen the bees have raised as a supersedure. When the supersedure queen hatches the bees do not let her harm the old queen until after the new queen has mated. Once she is mated and laying she is allowed to attack the old queen but now she cannot sting her. The younger queen will badger and bully the old queen until the old queen looses her wings which are eventually chewed off, then all her hair, and eventually becomes very frail and doddery looking until she dies.
This is why the two queens are often found close to each other. It is not because they get on, it is because the young queen follows her around. One of the less kind aspects of life in a beehive.
I have sometimes used these queens to make splits, sometimes they still have a bit of life in them. The one you have still looks like it might head a hive, but if you do use her for something just be sure to sight the new queen first, just on the (very rare) chance her wing loss has some other cause.
I have heard it said that queens can also loose their wings to a balling event, but in my experience a balled queen is fatally injured well before her wings are chewed off, I don't think a balling event would be likely for this queen.