Can the Queen fly whilst she is laying eggs

steveouk · January 06, 2008, 12:03:44 PM

I read in another thread about the queen stops laying eggs before she and most of the hive are about to swarm. Which then got me thinking

When the workers feed her and she is laying egg's can she actually fly or is her body weight to much for her ????

Regards
Stephen

pdmattox · January 06, 2008, 12:12:30 PM

In my opinion they have to quit laying so they can slim down to fly.

Cindi · January 06, 2008, 12:14:52 PM

Steve, I think that the comment Dallas made will be a common consensus. The bees stop the queen from laying eggs when they are preparing to swarm. She has very short wings and if she was heavy, laden with eggs, she could not get lift-off, hee, hee. That is another pretty sure sign that a colony is in swarm preparation, no eggs (and of course the queen cells). Have a fantastic day, Cindi

steveouk · January 06, 2008, 12:18:30 PM

Thanks , i was thinking more of bee removal from sites where the swarm had been there a while. Basically the queen will be the last bee there ....

Michael Bush · January 06, 2008, 03:32:01 PM

>When the workers feed her and she is laying egg's can she actually fly or is her body weight to much for her?

Typically a commercial Italian queen can't fly or at least can't fly more than a few feet when she's laying. Typically, the feral survivors I have can fly fine whether they are laying or not.

tig · January 06, 2008, 06:34:22 PM

i've notice they put the queen on a diet when the swarming impulse hits. once i see a queen thats thin, warning bells go off and im sure to find the start of a lot of queen cells.

Understudy · January 06, 2008, 11:22:32 PM

Okay the answer to this is Yes. A laying queen can fly. She cannot fly far but she can fly. A laying queen flies off with a swarm in search of a new home. She may not go far and may get help from workers in flying but yes she can fly. I will also say this I have seen a queen fly out of queen cage when I opened one. It was quite surprising. She didn't fly far but she did make it across the kitchen.

Also many people have done queen cage introductions and had the queen fly off after opening the cage. So yes queens can fly. not like workers can but they can fly far enough to get away.

Sincerely,
Brendhan