Here’s the story. Earlier this year I ordered a new queen to be delivered in June( from BeeWeaver in Texas) thinking that my old queen, now in her third year, would be replaced by her worker bees, sensing that her time was coming to an end. The colony wasn’t large enough to swarm so the “mail order bride” was to be a backup if the colony wasn’t successful in making a new queen by itself. Well, in May, the old queen kicked into high gear and began laying up a storm and the colony went in to full production mode…. lots of new brood, comb and honey. Then the new queen arrived . USPS. So…. I took the old queen and 5 combs of brood and honey and transferred them to an empty hive. I then lowered the newly arrived queen into the old hive in her transport cage. It takes about 2-3 days for the workers to release her from her quarters, and by then her odor has permeated the hive and they will accept her as their queen. Three days later I opened the hive but could not find the queen. Nowhere. Not only that, I did not see any evidence of newly laid eggs. I waited another three days and went in to look. Still no queen. But I did see a number of queen cells and when I looked into them each one had a small larva swimming around in royal jelly; evidence that the colony was creating a new queen by itself. For one reason or another, the workers were not satisfied with their Texan Queen so they took her eggs, placed them into queen cells and began to raise one by themselves. And the queen? She either died or was killed off by the workers. (probably the latter) After a week I saw that they had successfully reared the larva and capped it off. ( You can see the queen cell in the photo below…. it looks like a large peanut. ) There were actually three of these on the comb in various places. A couple days ago I checked in on them and the queens had hatched as evidenced by the fact that they cells were empty. The first queen to emerge went around and killed off the others that were still in their cells. After a couple days she will be escorted out of her hive by a group of workers for her “nuptial flight”, taken to a tree or area where lots of male drones hang out for the day, mate with 6 – 12 different males and then return to the hive. If all goes well, in about a couple weeks I should notice newly laid eggs and tiny larva once again.
Stay tuned for the next installment!
fascinating! Do we think Queen Elizabeth has been doing the same thing quietly for many years as a way to stay in power?
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That is awesome! Thanks for sharing,
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Fascinating. Sort of like British history!
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This is so interesting. I love learning!!!
linda w dillman
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Ah-h-h…the soap opera saga of the queens! I will stay tuned.
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What a fascinating story! Doug has been offered the equipment from a retiring beekeeper so he may be contacting you soon for your expert advice! Happy 4th of July to you and Jerry!
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Hi Linda, That’s a great way to get started. Will the equipment also come with a tutorial? It’s so important to have a good mentor to show exactly how to handle the bees and how to take care of them throughout the year. You can call me anytime for advice. Happy summer to you …. and congrats on your great award from Northwestern!
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[…] last year. It’s called “re-queening” and you can learn more about that here. She is now half-New Mexican. I am trying to develop a number of truly local queens for my hives. […]
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