Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: ivashka on August 05, 2010, 03:33:59 am

Title: virgin queen
Post by: ivashka on August 05, 2010, 03:33:59 am

I grafted some queens and they hatched on July 25th and she was suppose to mate by July 31st. I checked my hive that has my grafted virgin queen on August 1st and didn't see no eggs or anything.  Does it mean she never went mating? I haven't checked my hive since august 1st to see what's happening in there. But once I check and there are no eggs, what should I do?  lately we've been having rain and thunderstorms in the evening and not sure if it has anything to do with it.

Title: Re: virgin queen
Post by: BjornBee on August 05, 2010, 07:17:30 am

Check in another week. Your schedule is very tight in the timeframe of expectations. It does not always happen that soon.

Queens usually mate between late morning and about 3 pm.  So late day thunderstorms should not interfer with the process.

Title: Re: virgin queen
Post by: Kathyp on August 05, 2010, 01:57:44 pm

my last one took one month from egg to laying.  i almost combined the hive with another thinking i'd lost her.

Title: Re: virgin queen
Post by: bugleman on August 06, 2010, 03:41:24 am

I have found that 2 weeks is not long enough to verify queens.

Title: Re: virgin queen
Post by: Michael Bush on August 07, 2010, 09:25:05 am

Two weeks is typical.  But some take longer.  If you don't have eggs after 24 days from emergence, then I'd write them off.