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Author Topic: How long does it take a queen to start laying?  (Read 5076 times)

Offline ajneal30

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How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« on: July 08, 2013, 11:12:59 pm »
We had a hive raise their own queen. She hatched in a bee yard full of drones. She hatched almost a month ago and has yet to lay a single egg. Is she a dud, or does she need more time?

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2013, 10:54:28 am »
She will be laying at the latest three weeks after she emerged or she will become a drone layer.  Are you sure you don't have some eggs and you just didn't see them?
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2013, 11:28:24 am »
Your queen will try not mate with any of the drones from your yard. Your drones usually only fly about a kilometer from their hives. The queen will probably triple that so that she does not mate with her own bees.
If she does mate with her sons, half of the bees will bee an exact copy of the queen and the bees will remove them. The other half will be half her fathers genes and will bee allowed to developer. If it does happen, when she is laying eggs from her sons, the brood pattern will be very spotty with only half of them developing. The bees will usually supersede her.
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Offline njfl

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2013, 01:37:07 pm »
A month sounds like a long time.  By this time if she is going to lay, even if she started late, there should be eggs and even small larvae.  When was the last time you checked?

Offline ajneal30

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2013, 03:18:45 am »
I checked the day I posted this. I checked again today and not only were there no eggs, but today the queen is also gone.

Offline johng

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2013, 05:42:22 pm »
During good mating weather it can happen with in about 2 1/2weeks. A month is way too long I would be getting a new queen.

Offline capt44

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Re: How long does it take a queen to start laying?
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2013, 10:23:00 am »
I use a Queen Rearing Calendar to keep up with each batch of queens.
Starting from Day 1 until the new queen begins laying is day 27.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)