I checked in on my mating nucs today, just in time to see 2 of the queens just poking their heads out 17 days after grafting.
What's the longest time after grafting you've waited for a queen to emerge ?
I checked in on my mating nucs today, just in time to see 2 of the queens just poking their heads out 17 days after grafting.
12 days is normal but a couple of days after that is not out of the question. 5 days late would usually mean the cells have been at too low a temperature and the wings of the virgin are likely to be deformed. The other possibility is that the workers held the queens in the cell for a day or two. They often do that when there are multiple cells in a colony.
It'll be next weekend before I find out which it is, since they're up at the heather now and I didn't want to hang about to watch them come out. A shame though since the forecast is great for the next week to 10 days, mostly sunny and 5-10 its of wind.
No problems with wing deformation (that I can see). I lost one to starvation, but the rest came home yesterday with mating sign still attached when I looked in yesterday evening.
How long does it stay attached ?
Not long. The workers remove it almost immediately. I also saw one returning to an apidea with the mating sign yesterday. I had the apidea at a table to check it and had just filled in the record card to record Q- and when I set it back on its stand she flew straight in. Funny thing is the workers had a bit of a go at her and she left and returned 3 times in the next few minutes with the mating sign visible. I have only seen a queen showing the mating sign 2 or 3 times I think. You just have to be in the right place at the right time.Originally Posted by SDM
I think this is the origin of mated queens with a gammy leg. Manley said that a just mated queen can take a sting on a leg joint on returning from the mating flight. I have seen at least half a dozen queens with one leg trailing this summer and it is the same most years.
trailing legs might be due to the queen being poorly accepted into the mating nuc, ie a result of semi balling which I have obsevered through glass in my one frame nucs.
I've seen a few laying queens in mini nucs getting balled this year. I'm blaming the strain of bee used to populate most of the nucs.
Rather than the mating sign some time after mating is over, could well be the 'egg-laying sign'?! Mine sometimes march about with one still attached, presumably desperate to get shot of it but unable to find a polished cell for it.
Yes, it's balling which causes the damage. I have rescued queens from being balled loads of times but they very often have some defect which you notice later on, usually a dodgy leg. Apparently this is from taking a sting in a leg joint.
They say that bees balling a queen do not actually sting her. This is likely to be true as rescued queens from a tight ball do remain alive. Ball ing is more of a tight clustering and biting action rather than stinging IMO
I once had a picture (it might be on the forum somewhere) of a queen with the head (and just the head) of another bee firmly attached to its leg.
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