Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Aroc on July 17, 2017, 11:35:50 am

Title: Any chance a virgin queen can lay a handful of eggs before she mated?
Post by: Aroc on July 17, 2017, 11:35:50 am
A little background.

I have a couple of nucs that weren't going anywhere.  Neither produced a queen.  I decided to combine them and see if that would help.  After adding a frame of brood they did produce a handful of queen cells.  Last week we noticed they were all open.  Upon further inspection yesterday we noticed a a few small clusters of larvae and what looked like capped drone brood. 

The larvae tells me someone was in there laying eggs less than 8 days previous.  I didn't see any eggs so not sure if I have a laying worker.  Thought it might be possible for a virgin to lay some eggs before she mated.....?
Title: Re: Any chance a virgin queen can lay a handful of eggs before she mated?
Post by: Michael Bush on July 17, 2017, 02:03:24 pm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm
Title: Re: Any chance a virgin queen can lay a handful of eggs before she mated?
Post by: Van, Arkansas, USA on July 17, 2017, 04:24:50 pm
Mr. Bush, I followed your link to panacea, well written.  Thank you for sharing.