Does a Queen bee get bred before the swarm.

GaryMinckler · July 20, 2015, 10:07:58 PM

Captured a swarm and have it in an observation hive. A very small swarm. Finally spotted her. Do Drones go with the swarm...don't see any. When will she mate...before the swarm?

iddee · July 20, 2015, 11:31:00 PM

A virgin queen may be mated in flight with the swarm, but they do not mate in the hive. She will make mating flights after the swarm if she isn't mated during the swarm flight.

Michael Bush · July 21, 2015, 08:22:22 AM

The first swarm leaves with the old queen and she is already mated and will not mate again. The second, third etc. leave with a virgin queen and she will not mate until they are settled in to the new place. It doesn't matter if drones go with the swarm are not, but they often do. She will likely mate with other drones as she tends to fly further and higher than the drones.

challenger · July 21, 2015, 04:59:45 PM

I know this is mean but sheeesh! Do people actually take up beekeeping without knowing answers to such basic questions?
Keeping bees isn't like going to the pet store and getting a gold fish man. Don't waste your money and time until you learn a lot more about beekeeping. It is irresponsible to delve into beekeeping with such limited knowledge. To do so puts your bees on an almost guaranteed path to death in one form or another.
Everyone has to learn. This I know. No body was born a beekeeper and I'm not making any sort of judgement or character assassination. I'm just pointing out that you need a much stronger foundation of knowledge before you trial and error your way through 20 packages or 5 nucs. You do know what these are right?

Galaxy S4. Slimkat 4.4.2 official.

GaryMinckler · July 21, 2015, 06:44:48 PM

Challenger...bleep YOU!!!

GaryMinckler · July 21, 2015, 06:45:32 PM

aND I DIDN'T TYPE BLEEP!!! gO feed your bees sone vinegar!

Dallasbeek · July 21, 2015, 08:09:42 PM

One purpose of this forum, I remind you, is to share information about bees. Challenger, can you honestly say you knew all the answers before you started beekeeping? If you did, why are you on this forum instead of teaching entomology at a university?

Try to be kind. Please.

buzzbee · July 21, 2015, 09:11:34 PM

Well Gary, I don't know where to start here. Challenger was a bit out of line here, but attempting to use this kind of language on our forum is a huge no,no. This could be a call for an immediate ban without consideration.
Perhaps you should have a good hard look at this thread.
http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=19652.0

In these cases report to moderator is the appropriate thing to do. Retaliation is not.
So, one more misstep from you or Challenger could show you the exit.

We have not had this beahavior for a while,and I don't think we will start tolerating it now!!

buzzbee · July 21, 2015, 09:17:37 PM

And one more thing, that is just why we have the word filter in place. Try to work around you and the door slams right away.

GSF · July 21, 2015, 09:23:25 PM

Gary,

About my first post there was someone on here called Finiski from Finland. Right off the bat he called me stupid. Don't let this get to you, there's too much to be gained here. You learn by asking questions you don' t know the answer to - no matter what level of experience it is.

buzzbee · July 21, 2015, 10:01:18 PM

Quote from: challenger on July 21, 2015, 04:59:45 PM
I know this is mean but sheeesh! Do people actually take up beekeeping without knowing answers to such basic questions?
Keeping bees isn't like going to the pet store and getting a gold fish man. Don't waste your money and time until you learn a lot more about beekeeping. It is irresponsible to delve into beekeeping with such limited knowledge. To do so puts your bees on an almost guaranteed path to death in one form or another.
Everyone has to learn. This I know. No body was born a beekeeper and I'm not making any sort of judgement or character assassination. I'm just pointing out that you need a much stronger foundation of knowledge before you trial and error your way through 20 packages or 5 nucs. You do know what these are right?

Galaxy S4. Slimkat 4.4.2 official.

If you are intending to sound mean or be demeaning, it will be dealt with swiftly. We do not tolerate that here. These are legitimate questions that deserve a better response than what you have posted. If you cannot post something without being demeaning to the person asking the original question, you may wish to withhold your post.

Eric Bosworth · July 21, 2015, 10:13:18 PM

Humm... I would have to ask Challenger... It seems to me that the current queen leaves with the swarm. I would consider that pretty common knowledge. But until this thread I had never considered after swarms with a virgin queen and when they would mate. You might want to tone things down a bit. I would argue that in some locations it probably is as easy to keep bees as keeping fish. Bees lived for thousands of years on their own with no help from us. What makes you think bees need bee keepers at all?