It is much too early to assume that the virgin has failed. It could take as much as three weeks for her to become mated and begin laying (though it often happens earlier). And too, it takes a few days after the virgin has emerged from her cell, before she starts producing adult queen pheromones, so they may still be behaving as if they were queenless, their virgin may not be mature enough yet to be recognized as a queen.
While virgins are maturing, and before they mate and begin laying, the workers of the hive, will "rough them up". Apparently a way for them to become conditioned/trained for their excursions from the hive, and preparatory for the rigors of their mating flights. Sometimes this conditioning might be misconstrued by a beekeeper unaware of this, though it can also be difficult to know when a virgin is being "conditioned" or when she is being balled to death. I wanted to give you a heads-up, in case you are examining your new hive, to find the queen, and perhaps discover she is being conditioned by the workers (not to panic).
While virgins are maturing, and before they mate and begin laying, the workers of the hive, will "rough them up". Apparently a way for them to become conditioned/trained for their excursions from the hive, and preparatory for the rigors of their mating flights. Sometimes this conditioning might be misconstrued by a beekeeper unaware of this, though it can also be difficult to know when a virgin is being "conditioned" or when she is being balled to death. I wanted to give you a heads-up, in case you are examining your new hive, to find the queen, and perhaps discover she is being conditioned by the workers (not to panic).
