Mated Queens

[Ben Framed]

I have taken in so much information in the past 20 months that I can not clearly remember everything that I have been told or learned. I am thinking that it was discussed here sometime in this 20 month time frame that only virgin queens kill one another as mated queens do not kill other mated queens or virgins, is this correct. When a mated queen is killed it is by the worker bees such in supersedure situation, is this correct?
Phillip

[Donovan J]

I think they would fight mated or unmated. They dont care whether the queen is virgin or not they'll still fight.

[Ben Framed]

Maybe so Xerox. Do established queens always swarm before virgins are hatched?

[Donovan J]

Maybe so Xerox. Do established queens always swarm before virgins are hatched?

I'm pretty sure they do. Usually they will swarm once they cap the swarm cells then the virgin queens dual it out or the bees will super swarm when they swarm multiple times with each of the virgin queens until no bees are left.

[Ben Framed]

Do bees swarm with virgin queens only in certain situations,  or do they swarm with at least one mated queen?



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[Oldbeavo]

Some times you catch a swarm and go to do an inspection 4-5 days later and there are no eggs, but there is a queen.
I think this is a young queen that has hatched in a swarmed hive, goes out on a mating or orientation flight and the bees are in such a swarm mode, a queen is leaving then we will go also. Or they are in such swarm mode they just swarm anyway with the new queen. Why they do this is a mystery as it must be the death of the original hive unless there was a late formed QC that was not torn down.
We do have some queenless hives after Spring that I suspect are hives that the new queen does not get back or are second swarmers.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Oldbeavo, Xerox  👍🏻



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[BeeMaster2]

Do bees swarm with virgin queens only in certain situations,  or do they swarm with at least one mated queen?



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A primary swarm is the first swarm and the old queen leaves with the hive. After that if a hive swarms again it is a secondary swarm and the queen is a virgin. If there are more than one virgin queen in the swarm, they will wait until they are in the new hive before they fight to the death. Then she will mate.
Jim Altmiller

[BeeMaster2]

Maybe so Xerox. Do established queens always swarm before virgins are hatched?

Yes if weather permits. Sometimes during bad weather they are not able to swarm and the bees will keep the queens in the cells until the swarm has left.
Jim Altmiller

[Michael Bush]

Things are not so cut and dried.  But since you often see a mother/daughter pair in a hive it is obvious that virgins are looking to kill virgins and laying queens are not looking to kill anyone.  But the workers, in my experience, will kill a second laying queen if you introduce one while they still have a queen.

[Ben Framed]

Things are not so cut and dried.  But since you often see a mother/daughter pair in a hive it is obvious that virgins are looking to kill virgins and laying queens are not looking to kill anyone.  But the workers, in my experience, will kill a second laying queen if you introduce one while they still have a queen.

This is the way I understood it Mr Bush. Which leads to even more questions that I  may ask here later. Bees 🐝 are complicated little creatures. 😊
Thanks,
Phillip