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ocba - Re: [ocba] Telling a mated from an unmated queen

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: annallys Goodwin-Landher <annallys AT hotmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Telling a mated from an unmated queen
  • Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:32:20 -0500

Annallys,

Queen bees don't have to be mated to lay eggs. If a queen hasn't mated, all you will get are drones (protruding cell caps). If she has mated, you should get mostly workers (flat cell caps).

Different bee races vary with how they handle winter, and different bees of the same race vary from hive to hive. But in general, I don't expect (or want) to see a whole lot of bee brood right now. If your queen bees have read the right books, they'll be going into "shut down mode" for the winter. They don't need any extra mouths to feed right now. But they'll start laying again in mid/late January in order to build up the foraging army in time for the March honey flow.

If it wasn't the onset of winter and you had queens but no brood, I would ask whether you have plenty of stored pollen in addition to nectar/honey. Bee-rearing requires a lot of protein (from pollen), and if a hive doesn't have enough the workers will eat the larvae and eggs.

As long as you've got healthy-sized populations and abundant stored honey going into winter, you should be fine. Or not. But at this point there isn't a whole lot to do to help before next spring, except feeding sugar syrup if your honey stores are low.

Randall Austin

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 11:31 AM, annallys Goodwin-Landher <annallys AT hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
 
I was in my hives a week or so ago and noted that only one had capped  brood and the other two didn't. 
 
Question:  both hives without brood have queens, the luscious smell of pheremones and honey emanates from them.  I saw each of the queens when I was putting the supers back on the hive.  How do I tell if they are mated?
 
Of the three hives two have younger bees, furry on the posterior side of the thoracic segment of the bee, wings intact, etc. 
 
One hive has bees that look well used, older, with only a few younger ones.  There were fewer bees in this hive than I expected yet still they fill two supers.
 
Comments and responses appreciated.
 
Regards,
 
 
Annallys Goodwin-Landher
PO Box 2744
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
919 933-9109
annallys AT hotmail.com
 

 

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