Tuesday, March 27, 2012

They have a Queen ... Sorta, Kinda, Maybe

Here we go again.

The story is much like the small surprise swarm that showed up last year. They moved into a super. There were a few hundred of them - a small struggling hive with no queen, but someone was laying eggs.

They had a laying worker (drone layer). We could tell because of the bullet-like cappings.

With Hive #1 I reported that there were three frames with a small cluster of bees.  I spotted eggs in many cells. Some cells had more than one egg.  That's a no-no.

[Photo - Janice assisting with the inspection]

You know what that can mean: A Laying Worker.  There was clearly no queen in sight.

[Photo - see the queen at the top of the frame]
Fast forward one week later. I show the hive to my beekeeping friend Janice. She confirms that she saw a couple eggs in a couple cells. Then while I’m holding the frame closely I see Her.

She’s tiny and not much bigger than the workers. Was she there all along and I didn't see her?  She has the shiny black hairless back and brown legs that are customary with queens.

So now the question is, is she really a queen or is she a laying worker that is morphing into a queen? Can they do that or have I watched too many science fiction movies lately?

I have read that new inexperienced queens can lay more than one egg in a cell. It’s just that the workers fix things by moving the eggs.

If she’s a new queen is she mated? Are there even drones available (with mature sperm) so early in spring?

So many questions.

Only time will answer them.

2 comments:

Sam Smith said...

When queens are not fertile they can only lay drones, I don't think drones are out yet, they take 42 days? and we have only had nice weather for a couple of weeks (in my part of ontario), are any of the cells caped yet?

Bee Magic Chronicles for Kids said...

Hi Sam. I don't think drones are out yet either and if they hatched today they'd still need some time for their sperm to mature.
When scraping frames last weekend I did see capped drone comb between the frames so at least the queens are laying (this is on one of my other hives).
On the questionable hive I hope to check this weekend to see if the cappings are bullets or flat.

I'm in London Ontario.