Queen behavior before fully mated

[susan rudnicki]

I am still not clear on the behavior of a queen after she hatches out, but before she is fully mated over a number of days. I have seen virgin queens in my nucs. A split I made 17 days ago from a frame with eggs, reared two queen cells. I looked for a virgin queen and see none at 6:30 in the evening, which is a time of day when I would expect her to be there—not on a mating flight. What do you all think is happening?

[susan rudnicki]

Michael Bush sent me this answer—

There should be one unless she is on a mating flight and those don’t
usually take long, but that does not mean you will see her. Virgins are
runny, flighty and like to hide. They are also not much bigger than a
worker and don’t move anything like a queen. Sometimes they are
impossible to find in a two frame mating nuc with really good eyes for
finding a queen… I figure average before you find eggs is two weeks.
It could be as long as three and as short as one.
————————-

I have seen VQs in my nucs before and just assumed I would find her this time. She is definitely shorter than a mature queen, but her orange legs and abdominal coloring have been the i.d. traits I noted.

[Stefan]

She may have also been doing her orientation flights. All virgin queens make several of these flights before their mating flight.

[susan rudnicki]

Yeah, I checked the nuc again the following day and saw her.

[susan rudnicki]

Hey, Africanized Beek–why are you not listed by a known name? We are all members of this club, and I don’t know what your human name is….. Susan

[Stefan]

Hi Susan, sorry about the mix up. I am actually not a member of the club. I kinda just wandered in from your feed on Instagram.

[susan rudnicki]

Yeah? So, will you reveal your identity and where you are located? Susan

[Stefan]

Just updated my Profile info 🙂

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