Will this queen mate?

990 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by stan.vick, Apr 10, 2014

philip.devos

Discussion Starter · Apr 10, 2014

Two of 3 colonies made it through the winter. One is booming. Queen is laying much worker brood and some drone brood. Today I saw some drones outside the hive.

The other has a small cluster of about 1000 - 2000 bees and a queen, pretty much between 2 frames. This was an 8-frame colony last year, but given the small group, I moved the frames with the bees and several with stores into a 5-frame nuc. I imagine the original queen was lost late last year and this one is a virgin. No eggs are being laid. These bees have sufficient stores, and are not flying very much.

I am keeping this group out of curiousity, but wonder if this queen will go out and mate when warm weather comes. I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Phil

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Rader Sidetrack

· #2 · Apr 10, 2014

If you are suggesting that the queen emerged last fall and wasn't mated then, it seems unlikely that successful mating can occur at this time.

This thread touches on that, particularly post #13 ...
http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...32409&highlight=queen+mating+delay#post232409

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stan.vick

· #3 · Apr 10, 2014

I'd add a frame of brood every week or ten days to boost their population, if the other hives can spare them, if the queen does not start laying or they don't raise a new one, you can always combine them and you really haven't lost anything. Sometimes a queen can be fertile and won't lay if the population is too low.

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