checking my development queen math and some ?'s on emergance behavior

[windfall]

I have a new virgin queen in my Ob Hive, and she appears to be busy wreaking havoc on her tardy sisters!

I was surprised to see this today, it was a bit earlier than I thought, so please help me interpret the math and my observations for a better understanding:

5/19 hive stocked in the late afternoon
5/21 PM clear signs of q-cells started
5/24 many Q-cells of various stages/sizes with the first(and smallest)capped.
5/25 most others capped
5/29 many cell ends appear translucent. I believe they have been stripped down to the cocoons?
5/30 7 AM same as above but more so
5/30 9 PM many of the largest and later capped cells are torn open (all in one cluster) No visible queen pupa (or remnants) in any, workers frantically tearing down/cleaning them out.

As I watched this last observation, wondering why they were aborting those cells....well hey, look at that there is a queen! She was working around and around that cluster (maybe 6-8 cells) At one point I thought I saw her sting a cell that was already torn open and then poke her head in to investgiate.

There are still several other cells that are undamaged. The one I first saw capped on 5/24 among them. I can not find a cell with an open end (presumably hers), but the number of bees around the cells make it hard to see clearly.

So I assume this queen must have come from a larva  that was 2-3 days old (day 5-6 from egg) in order to be hatched now at what is day 11 from the split? for some reason I didn't think the first day of the split would "count", that they would not begin the new q-cells for at least 24hrs. It has been warm hear, days in the low 80's all week and I guess that would speed things along as well? The more I go through it here in writing the more I see it was pretty near on schedule, Somehow I must have missed this first cell that got capped.

Now a few questions:
1-I know the queen stings the cells to kill the others before they emerge. Does she also tear them open or is that worker work?
2-what do the bees do with the dead unemerged queens? Eat them? Drag them out? Why do I see no remnants in any of the cells?
3-Can I make any assumption about where she emerged from the location of the destroyed cells?
4-I have heard no piping at all. Normal? I have heard piping in hives last year, but those were swarm scenarios not e-queens.

Well, I am sure more questions will come to me, but now I have to get back to it and see if she is headed for those as yet undamaged cells. Something was going on at one of them...Frantic circle of bees around it. Couldn't tell if they were opening/cleaning or "corralling" another to keep her in. It's getting late, well past my bedtime but I just can't bear to miss the action like I did this afternoon.

[FRAMEshift]

Wow, Bee TV really is exciting!  You've asked some good questions.  Can't wait to hear the answers you discover by watching the bees.

[windfall]

Every time I look in there it is fascinating, but yesterdays activity was a bit more "exciting". I can imagine watching 2 virgins duke it out would be particualrly so....ah bloodsports :-D

I did get some answers watching for another hour last night:

The queen came from an isolated cell in the bottom corner of the hive....tiny runty little thing barely bigger than a drone cell. It's the only one I see with the end open and the workers have left it alone...no contents to deal with.

The new queen works fast, cruising around and giving multiple stings to any cells she encounters, mostly along the bottom 1/3 (going for a head shot?). The workers seem to move in right behind her, 1-2 cut a slit in through the side and then a bunch rush in to open it up. Her search movements seem somewhat random but once she finds a cell she methodically works that area for awhile.

Those frantic circles of bees form once they initially tear into the q-cell. It seems to be a feeding frenzy on the contents. When done they pull apart any remnants of exoskeleton and drop it to the bottom of hive for later clean out. Again it doesn't take long which is why I saw nothing in my first look. I assume during the day the housekeepers cleaned up quick, but in the dark it accumulates a bit.

Overnight she continued her work and I think only 1-2 intact cells remain this AM. I saw her briefly she appears to be still "on the prowl".

Some more questions:
- Last night the other bees seemed to pretty much ignore her except to occasionally feed her, but this AM she appears to have some attendants and she gets more attention. I thought that wouldn't happen until she mated?

-Last night as I watched about 20-30 bees began to to fan along the bottom of the hive. Up to now I have only observed 2-3 doing this at any time (in this hive). It was a very cool evening so I don't think it was about venting. It was also the longest I have kept the windows exposed to watch in one sitting, which also seems to cool the hive. Was this fanning somehow related to the emergence activities?

[BlueBee]

Very interesting Windfall.  You're tempting me to want to build an observation hive now  :)

[windfall]

Bluebee it is great, everyone in the house loves it. The level of detail you get is simply fantastic. And it was a fun project to tinker and redesign last winter in the shop. I just have to figure out a better way to deal with glare on the glass for easy viewing. Holding a flashlight at an angle gets old pretty quick.

There is now another queen roaming the hive. She has been out all day,but is a sad pathetic thing. Her color is way off, her wings shriveled and torn, and moves like a cripple. Some of the capped queen cells were all in a pile, almost burying each other. I suspect she got torn out prematurely "by accident" when all those around her got stung and since she wasn't dead the bees have been keeping her alive...but that is a total  guess. There is always a circle around her, and I have seen them try to groom out her wings and feed her. I also watched her get stuck for 15 min with her head and thorax in a worker cell, at least she sure seemed stuck and frantic to get out. Why they keep her is a curiosity to me, no way she is ever going on mating flight.

The other virgin moves around normally and is generally left alone by the workers unless she stops for awhile.

1 capped cell still intact. I don't know if the strong virgin has just missed it, or more likely the bees have kept her away from it...?

[Course Bee]

Windfall, This is a great read. Please keep it up.

[windfall]

Glad your enjoying it Course Bee, I don't take much encouragement to blab on and on so here you go:

The "sad queen" as my 4 year old called her disappeared overnight, so I don't know if she just died or was killed by the other.

I watched the other queen pass over the last cell a number of times apparently ignoring it. I had expected it to emerge sometime yesterday. By chance when I looked in around noon yesterday, the first virgin was moving onto it and stinging it repeatedly. There was already a circle of bees packed about it. I don't know if they were trying to keep her away or were just lining up for a place at the "feeding frenzy" once she was done. But the cell was destroyed quickly after. It made me wonder why she had passed it by before and what ques she is looking for as she prowls the hive for other virgins/cells.

I assume she has yet to take a mating flights (She is always present when I look) , but I have watched her insert her abdomen a few times into cells, too many bees to tell if she laid an egg. I am guessing just "practice" or impulse behavior. But perhaps she can lay drones before her mating flight? At this point she always has a steady circle of attendants about her any time she stops moving.

The weather for the last 2 days has been wet cold and windy and will be for a few more. Hopefully sometime after that she will get out and mate, return sucesfully and I will begin to see eggs. But I think the "excitement" is over for now.

Anyone who can shed some insight/corrections into my observations please do.