Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: GaryMinckler on June 19, 2010, 01:37:33 PM

Title: Is this a queen bee?
Post by: GaryMinckler on June 19, 2010, 01:37:33 PM
Two days ago I inspected and cleaned some burr comb and a few queen cells.  Everything went into a bucket.  Yesterday I found this bee walking around on the comb inside the bucket.  The bee practically walked right into an old queen cage I had.  I set the cage in front of a colony that had swarmed and had no brood in it, she walked out of the cage directly into the beehive. It was all pretty wierd.  The picture quality is poor but...Is this a queen bee?(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6523/1001009d.th.jpg) (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/1001009d.jpg/)

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Title: Re: Is this a queen bee?
Post by: AllenF on June 19, 2010, 01:46:36 PM
It is hard to say with the photo that you have, but with the length of the bee with her wingspan I would have to say that she would have to be a queen.
Title: Re: Is this a queen bee?
Post by: GaryMinckler on June 19, 2010, 01:58:24 PM
The length of the bee along with the pronounced black spot that usually gets marked on a queen made me think queen.  It was strange the way she was just wandering around on pieces of comb. Could she have come out of a queen cell? During the inspection I did see a bee trying to get out of a queen cell.
Title: Re: Is this a queen bee?
Post by: bee-nuts on June 19, 2010, 02:56:50 PM
Its a queen as far as I can tell.
Title: Re: Is this a queen bee?
Post by: G3farms on June 19, 2010, 04:10:45 PM
Hard to tell from the blurry pic, but I would say yes just from the length of her.

G3