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Author Topic: Swarm queen or virgin?  (Read 823 times)

Offline yes2matt

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Swarm queen or virgin?
« on: May 10, 2020, 02:08:07 pm »
https://youtu.be/Ns96E7wHguA

I don't normally cut swarm cells but this time I did, I cut out ten. Some were very ripe.

I heard this queen before I saw her. I thought she was piping from inside a cell but couldn't find another cell.

So what I think this is : the first virgin calling to the others so she can come eliminate them?  Or perhaps the queen mother rallying the troops -- though I'm pretty sure this is not the queen mother,  she was a big bronze beauty.

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Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: Swarm queen or virgin?
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2020, 04:55:30 pm »
Virgin, definitely.
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.