I have two hives that I have doubts have queens. (Just introduced a week ago, not in the cages.). No eggs yet. May be too early. However, I'm thinking of putting a couple of ripe queens cells into them for insurance. If there are fertile queens present, what happens to the virgins when they emerge?
Sox, if there is a queen in the hive, you queen cells will be destroyed. At least a hole in the side of the queen cell will be made and the maturing queen will be killed.
Blessings
Quote from: Van, Arkansas, USA on June 20, 2018, 07:22:34 PM
Sox, if there is a queen in the hive, you queen cells will be destroyed. At least a hole in the side of the queen cell will be made and the maturing queen will be killed.
Blessings
I'm not sure this is correct. Doesn't it happen that when a hive is preparing to swarm, there are many swarm cells being made - while the queen is still there doing her job? And the virgins fight it out? Not virgin and Fertile queen.
My question is IF a colony is not in swarm mode, and there is a virgin present, what happens to the virgin while the Fertile queen is there?
Quote from: 2Sox on June 20, 2018, 07:25:50 PM
Quote from: Van, Arkansas, USA on June 20, 2018, 07:22:34 PM
Sox, if there is a queen in the hive, you queen cells will be destroyed. At least a hole in the side of the queen cell will be made and the maturing queen will be killed.
Blessings
I'm not sure this is correct. Doesn't it happen that when a hive is preparing to swarm, there are many swarm cells being made - while the queen is still there doing her job? And the virgins fight it out? Not virgin and Fertile queen.
My question is IF a colony is not in swarm mode, and there is a virgin present, what happens to the virgin while the Fertile queen is there?
Sending this out
Hives supersede all the time. When this happens, most of the time you end up with a mother daughter pair laying eggs side by side. Eventually the mother queen will disappear.
Jim
Quote from: 2Sox on June 20, 2018, 06:38:53 PM
I'm thinking of putting a couple of ripe queens cells into them for insurance.
Why not put a frame of young larvae in to see if they build queen cells? If so you could destroy the cells and add your ripe one.
Quote from: Acebird on June 21, 2018, 09:23:32 AM
Quote from: 2Sox on June 20, 2018, 06:38:53 PM
I'm thinking of putting a couple of ripe queens cells into them for insurance.
Why not put a frame of young larvae in to see if they build queen cells? If so you could destroy the cells and add your ripe one.
Thumbs up on this. Gonna take another look for eggs and then pull out a frame with larvae from another hive if necessary.
Quote from: 2Sox on June 21, 2018, 01:05:30 PM
Quote from: Acebird on June 21, 2018, 09:23:32 AM
Quote from: 2Sox on June 20, 2018, 06:38:53 PM
I'm thinking of putting a couple of ripe queens cells into them for insurance.
Why not put a frame of young larvae in to see if they build queen cells? If so you could destroy the cells and add your ripe one.
Thumbs up on this. Gonna take another look for eggs and then pull out a frame with larvae from another hive if necessary.
Good move because queen cells will be destroyed if there is a queen in there.
Look at the frames in the middle. What you are looking for is an area of cells that are spit shined at the bottom, most of the time they are in a circle somewhat. They are clean and shinny as a whistle. This is a sign that you have a mated queen and she hasn't started laying yet. The bees know this and that's why they prepare a place in advance.
Quote from: GSF on June 21, 2018, 03:10:40 PM
Look at the frames in the middle. What you are looking for is an area of cells that are spit shined at the bottom, most of the time they are in a circle somewhat. They are clean and shinny as a whistle. This is a sign that you have a mated queen and she hasn't started laying yet. The bees know this and that's why they prepare a place in advance.
This is VERY useful information. Thank you so much!
I have noticed this myself as well. As far as queencells in a queenright colony...in my experience the bees will do what they want. If they believe they are queenless they won?t tear down a queen cell unless they are in a laying worker situation. If they have a virgin or mated queen they will likely disappear. Another example of queen cells in a queen right colony is the cloake board queen rearing method. I currently have eight cells cooking above a queen excluder. These however are cells made by that colony and separated by the queen. I think ultimately giving them a frame of young brood is the wisest choice.
This situation also depends on whether or not the virgin is an aggressive queen.
If she is calm and docile she will live with the original laying queen for awhile. After that the
original queen will fly away to LA LA LAND somewhere. And if the virgin is an aggressive queen then she
will kill the original queen. Some virgins are so docile that they did not tear out the other cap QCs. I have 3 virgins in
a queen less hive that emerged from a total of 6 QCs on a frame. Two got tattered wings but did not die. Why I asked? Then I figured that there
might be another virgin somewhere in there. Sure enough she's a strong carnis virgin queen. I'm sure the other 2 queens got
beaten up pretty badly. Surprisingly, she also tore out the 2 remaining cap QCs.