On the 4th of June I removed a frame of capped brood and the queen from my OH (just 2 deep frames stacked). This was the 3rd time I have done this this year, trying to keep the OH going and getting some queens as a bonus. It has been interesting to watch the virgin queens wondering around the hive, take their mating flight (have not witnessed the flight yet) and begin laying. But this time was different, the first queen cell (that I could see) was capped on the 10th and the last ones around the 15th.
When the first queen hatched the 18th, she acted different than the others. She wondered around like the others but she would stop every so often, flatten out on the comb and pipe. The bees around her were grooming her and interacting,( 'wrestling' but not fighting), where the other virgins this year were ignored until they mated. The hive seemed to guard the lower corner where the last 2 queen cell were capped. On Monday night she was piping and there were at least 2 cells responding to her piping. She did not seem too interested in getting to those cells but than the bees were packed around them.
Well, as I thought might happen, Tuesday morning before 9am when I looked in on them, the virgin queen, half the hive and almost every drop of honey were gone. This evening there is a new virgin running around the half empty hive. Will have to see how she acts.....may be time to shut it down for the summer. Usually I put them into a nuc by now, but they were doing so well.
OH's are great learning tools....everyone should keep one for a while.
Jim
Topic: Virgin queen swarm from OH (Read 1563 times)