I suppose to fly a queen needs to be slim. Whenever I see a queen is still quite "rotund" and the family is busy building comb, I feel there are no immediate plans to depart on holidays.
Environmental factors probably are decisive in when first mating flight occurs.
Mature drones are quite firm and hard and if you squeeze one end the other end pops out! Useful if one is into this II business. If I ever knew the number of days this takes, I have long forgotten it.
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