Virgin Queen

[GSF]

I had a guy give me a virgin queen today. He said it hatched out maybe three days ago. It's in a pint jar, bunch of holes in the lid with attendants and a piece of comb honey. Right now they all are sticky from walking on the honey and walking on each other. Now, fast forward.

I went in two of my March package hives to pull some frames with plans to create a nuc. Well hell's bells, queen less, with almost no brood left. So I pull a couple of empty frames out of the super and laid the jar in there.

Does a virgin queen have a "queen scent" or does that come after mating? Could I just turn her loose in there since she's a virgin? and since she's coated with honey? Is she doomed since she has sticky on her wings? It's not like she was dunked in honey.

[GSF]

UPDATE;

Today after church I went into the hive to see what was happening and to release the queen. I guess she was in there 12 to 18 hours. I saw about 8 to 10 bees at the holes in the jar acting in a mild manner. When I released her almost immediately a worker was on her back and she lifted her tail up as to sting him - so I thought. I puffed some smoke on them and the worker took off. Then another worker met her and started feeding her, yet another started grooming her. Then it dawned on me, the first one was grooming as well - that's why she lifted her tail up.

I'll keep yall updated on the virgin q. I'm not sure why they were so ready to accepted her except it had been a while since they had one. Anyway, the two splits I did three days ago are drawing comb and I'm feeding them as well. Bees are yet still interesting.

[GSF]

Today I was going through a hive that I suspected was fixing to swarm (and it was). I needed to get something but it was over at the side of my yard where this hive was located at. I took a glance at this hive that I had put the new virgin queen in last Saturday and released Sunday.

I started noticing a ton of activity around the hive. Bees started gathering up in large numbers around this hive. I'm thinking, ROBBING!! So I close the entrance completely up. Then I'm thinking, this hive is pretty strong to be robbed. As I watched the bees pile up I noticed workers bringing in pollen, but most of all - a ton of drones. I mean a ton of drones.

So I'm thinking that it's highly probable that this was a mating flight of the virgin queen. Drones don't have to rob because it's free for the taking. Once everyone got in things seemed to settle down. No fighting or nothing. What do you think?