A friend of mine hives swarmed saturday. Today i went to make good use of a few cells. Well I started looking closely and 6 of cells were hatching right in front of me. Before I knew it, I had 5 virgins running around, all different colors, some tan some black. I caged tgem and luckily I had previously prepared mating nucs at another yard. Well while this was going on another flying virgin showed up at the front of the hive and was trying to enter the hive but the gaurd bees wouldn't let her. They were attacking and she should fly off and come back again to be attacked. I was able to catch her too. The flyer was stouter than the hatched virgins. When I brought the queens to mating nucs in another yard a few miles away, the nucs payed no attention to the "virgin" that tried to enter the hives, but they loved the freshly hatched virgins, instantly fanning, running accross frames, feeding her etc. I suppose that has to do with the queen scent from royal jelly wearing off within a day or so. Is that right?
Any ideas about the hole situation? where flying virgin came from ( from a previous afterswarm?), why she was excepted by queenless nucs etc. Anyone have similar experiences.
Any ideas about the hole situation? where flying virgin came from ( from a previous afterswarm?), why she was excepted by queenless nucs etc. Anyone have similar experiences.
