My average in good weather is eggs 10 days after emerging. It is easy to spook a virgin by making inspections, it is possible to frighten them to the point they abscond.
My experience wrt timeline has been similar. This season I had time to check on emergence of the queens. I?ve kept track and marked on a calendar emergence dates and laying dates. Only a very few were laying in 8 days. Most were laying in 12-14 days. The ones that were not laying at 20 days, I pinched and started over.
The number of ?lost? queens varied as the season progressed. From hi losses 65% in June, no losses in July, 25% losses in August, and 100% losses and poor layers from August 25 onwards. Causes of the losses?
- Weather shifts are a killer. It is common to experience sudden shift in mid afternoon weather patterns resulting in high gusty winds and thunderstorms. If she?s flown off a ways, she will not make it back and will perish from exposure. June and September are unsettled stormy months here. Nice calm blazing sunshine mornings, booming thunder and gusting by 4pm in the afternoon. The Queens and Drones did not usually come out until about 2pm, so was easy and often that they got caught off guard ...
- Predators. In June it is relentless dragonflies and some birds. In August it is voracious wasps and hornets.
- Too late in the season, September onwards. Drone numbers are dwindling and they are being evicted from the hives. The Queens have to fly farther and harder to find mates. Late season mated queens do not last, do not lay long before turning drone layer ... if she makes it back from her flight.
No, I sincerely doubt she can stay out overnight and come back next day. My observations are that I sincerely doubt she can be away from the hive for much more than 30 minutes before she runs out of energy (needs food) and cannot make it back simply due to fatigue and an empty gas tank.
If you have an eye for queens, and working them in reasonably small/med sized hive or mating nuc; the virgins are really easy to spot. They look just like a queen, with a smaller behind and faster moving. Very distinctly queen looking, no mistaken. If see her in the hive give her some days grace, but not too many if the weather has been good. The bees will not evict her if she is a dud. With a new queen They will suffer her lack of performance and drone laying. If you do not see her in the hive in the evening at beedtime. Start over the next day.
Depending where you are, imho trying to raise queens at this point in the year is a lost cause. You should instead consider to Combine with another colony or just bite-it and shake them out. Spend the time cleaning out your equipment getting ready for next year.
Topic: Missing Queen? (Read 1655 times)