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Author Topic: Any chance a virgin queen can lay a handful of eggs before she mated?  (Read 941 times)

Offline Aroc

  • House Bee
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  • Posts: 294
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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.....?
You are what you think.

Offline Michael Bush

  • Universal Bee
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    • bushfarms.com
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Van, Arkansas, USA

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Mr. Bush, I followed your link to panacea, well written.  Thank you for sharing.

 

anything