Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: drlonzo on April 11, 2014, 04:20:05 AM

Title: How long does it take a Queen to enlarge
Post by: drlonzo on April 11, 2014, 04:20:05 AM
From the time a package is hived, by your experiences, how long did it take your queens to go from the small stature young queen, to the full bellied Queens we all love to see?
Title: Re: How long does it take a Queen to enlarge
Post by: beeman2009 on April 11, 2014, 01:37:58 PM
Unless you purchase a virgin queen she should be enlarged when she is caged and sold. If she isn't I would ask my supplier how long she was allowed to lay before caging her.
Title: Re: How long does it take a Queen to enlarge
Post by: buzzbee on April 12, 2014, 07:22:02 AM
Some queens get larger than others. She will be better fed when fully accepted by the package she was shipped with. She may have been slimmed down to flying size if she had not been attended too as much being dropped in a package of new bees.
Title: Re: How long does it take a Queen to enlarge
Post by: Vance G on April 26, 2014, 11:23:10 AM
I live in the middle of the northern part of the country and all queens I receive are small.  Three days since being pulled if I can believe the suppliers.  Some appear tiny.  In two weeks they are looking pretty queenly usually.  If they are going to that is.
Title: Re: How long does it take a Queen to enlarge
Post by: capt44 on April 26, 2014, 04:42:57 PM
What I've noticed is the queens emerging from a cell are mostly small.
When I place them in a mating NUC I check on them 12 days later to see what kind of pattern they have and mark them then.
I have found that most have fairly large adomens by then.
If I have an order I package her with attendants and then the next day requeen the mating NUC.