# Does a quickly mated queen mean a well mated queen?



## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Queen rearing practice, weather, drone density during mating flight, perhaps genetics all can play a role in it, perhaps other factors. My preference would be mating right on schedule, but I have no studies nor observations to back this. Check Laidlaw's Contemporary Queen Rearing for discussion on mating quality as a function of time. I don't currently have a copy.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

SRatcliff said:


> had a lot of queens laying by day 8 after emergence. I don't know if this is an indication that queens are quickly well mated well and start laying, or if it's the norm.


That's what I hope for when I use cells. You'll know whether she was well mated or not by how well she lays and whether she gets superceded or not. It's not like you can get her to fly and mate again. So if you see your queen(s) laying by day 8, bee happy.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

I usually don't check until the 14th day - my eyes aren't all that great anyway - and if I can't spot something pretty easily by then it's almost always a bad sign. For what little I know about it I consider early performance to be a good thing.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I find that 8 days is not unusual during peak season, which I define as starting near swarm season and ending before summer dearth. Before and after peak it seems to take longer, but I really have not documented this, so this could be just a manifestation of anxiety  I really do not know if these quick matings relate to better matings? If I had to guess, it would be yes. I wouldn't be surprised to see that this has been studied and documented. Google may provide some help.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

All I know is that if the weather has been all right and they still need a long time(= over 12 days) to start laying, it is a bad sign. Not enough quality drones for proper matings.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I don't think that a quick mating means a badly
mated queen. It has to do with the drone saturation in your area
during her mating flight(s.) 
I don't even know how many mating flights she will take
in order to gather all the sperms for her entire life time
of laying. But if she feels enough is enough then it is good
enough for me. Now after the laying is when all the final
evaluation of the queen begins. I had bought queen that ran
out of juice the next Spring time. So it doesn't matter how quickly
she is mated as long as she is a good laying queen and not a drone layer.
My normal mating flight for a virgin queen here is around 8 days.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I find most of my queens start laying on day 11 or 12 after giving the cell. When I open cells on the day I give them to the mating nucs, the pupae are in the purple eye stage or just starting to get a bit of body color. There are also some that begin to lay on day 15. I can't see a difference in performance.

Webster once told me that his Russian hybrids often start laying about day 21.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I have had sites that give good mating percentage, and at those sites the queens also start laying sooner. It's just a theory, but what seems a likely explanation is there are plenty of drones in the area allowing queens to get well mated soon as they start flying. Which equals faster time to laying, plus better percentage.

Could be wrong though may be something else.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

Yes, Dr lopers.work with radar shows that queens in an apiary find plenty of drones in the flyway and don't go so far.


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

If you are lucky enough to see the queen leave on the mating flight, time the length of time it takes her to return. Anything less than 30 minutes usually means the queen has met enough drones to be fully mated. This information is from a study done in Germany by N, Koeniger and G. Koeniger.


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## sjj (Jan 2, 2007)

A 'quick mating' means: 'it was a good, well developed virgin queen'. I was taught so.


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