We have a hive we suspect to be queenless. It has produced some unmated queens but we have no drones yet here, so I requeened it with a caged, mated queen. We first looked thru for any unmated queens or cells. While doing this, some bees exposed their Nasonov gland and this made me suspect they have a queen even though we saw nothing. So, is it a sign of a queenright hive or just an instictive reaction to tell all their bees where home is?
Yes queenless and queenright hives will nasonov. Queenless hives more so as they are hoping to guide their lost queen home.