How long before a queen mates?

FlexMedia.tv · August 30, 2016, 12:10:53 AM

I have been posting a few post for some hints with my situation. Thanks to everyone for the help!
I'm pretty sure I lost my queen. No eggs no larvae, just honey. A few weeks ago I looked deep in my brood box and found 3,4 capped queen cells. I haven't done any inspections since so I don't disturb them. I'm in Michigan. How long does it take from this point before a queen mates? My hope is to have a laying queen to make it through the Winter.

Thanks!
Art

lilprincess · August 30, 2016, 12:12:25 AM

I'm in a similar situation. I saw the capped cells a week ago and I'm wondering if I can check them now.

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cao · August 30, 2016, 02:10:01 AM

When you see capped queen cells, the queen will usually hatch in a week.

I give her a couple days to get ready to go on her mating flight. A couple more days to get mated. A couple more to start laying. That's about a week.

Then I give her about a week for her "me time".

So I usually check three weeks after the queen cells are capped.
Hope this helps.

iddee · August 30, 2016, 07:53:07 AM

Egg is layed on day 1.
Cell is capped on day 8
queen emerges on day 16
She can begin laying anywhere from day 21 to day 36.

Michael Bush · August 30, 2016, 11:11:39 AM

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

The drop dead date for a queen to be laying is 21 days after she emerges. USUALLY it's a safe bet she will be laying two weeks after she emerges, but 21 days is the max. She might be laying as soon as 4 days after she emerges...

FlexMedia.tv · August 30, 2016, 06:53:52 PM

All good hints, thanks!
I'm going to leave them alone for a few more days. I did notice a change in the top feeder. They are not consuming no where near the amount they did since I first noticed the queen was gone. Then again, the other hive isn't either. Is it true the first queen that emerges will kill the others?

Art

BeeMaster2 · August 30, 2016, 10:16:25 PM

She will if the bees allow her. When a hive is strong, sometimes they wil keep the queens in their cells and only let one queen out at a time and will not let her kill the queens in the cells. They will produce one swarm after another, usually spaced one week apart. I call it super swarming.

Usually the first one to hatch kills the other queens. The bees will also remove any queens in their cells that they detect as defective.
Jim

little john · August 31, 2016, 04:37:16 AM

The timings which have been given are near-enough accurate for most of the time - however - there are a couple of issues to bear in mind if you're going to rely on them 'as gospel'.

The first is that we're talking about biological organisms - and so it's useful to bear in mind that the timings which appear in just about every book and other source on beekeeping, are averages - variations from which can depend on factors such as ambient temperature.

Then, there's the 'Day 0' issue - when exactly does the queen start to lay ? When inserting a queen into a Cupkit cage, for example, sometimes queens wait a day or two to start laying. (I've even had one which flatly refused to lay until returned to her own combs)
And even if you inspect every day for eggs, there's still uncertainly about the exact start date: say you inspect the comb at midday each day, and eventually find the egg you're looking for. Was that egg laid a few seconds before you picked up the comb today, or was it laid a few seconds after you replaced it yesterday ? The uncertainly of when that egg was laid is thus very nearly 24hrs, or 1 day - so it always pays to allow a tolerance of at least +/- 1 day, or even more, if you're going to rely on development timings.
LJ

Jim134 · August 31, 2016, 08:50:11 AM

This may help you

http://www.thebeeyard.org/cgi-bin/queencalendar.pl?month=8&day=31&year=2016
http://www.thebeeyard.org/queen-rearing-calendar/

BEE HAPPY Jim 134

Michael Bush · August 31, 2016, 09:31:35 AM

When in doubt, a frame of open brood and eggs is good insurance.

FlexMedia.tv · September 03, 2016, 12:03:02 AM

Thanks everyone. All good stuff! I'll take a peak at them this weekend.
Art

FlexMedia.tv · September 06, 2016, 10:48:51 PM

I looked inside my hive that I thought lost its queen because I didn't see any eggs, larvae. Now I see larvae and I destroyed some taking off a super. I raised the super and the first pic is what I found. At least something is laying eggs. The 2nd pic looks like they are tasting the larvae, don't know. Looks like drone cells? The 3rd pic, it was really to hot to do an inspection anyway. Tough day today!

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