# Queen returning from mating flight?



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Watched it about 10 times and I think I know which bee you're thinking is a queen. Going to wait and see what others say. Hopefully someone else says they think the same one is a queen. I'm not that confident.


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)

Thanks for your input...I wasn't too confident either. If it wasn't the queen returning, would you have an idea why they'd be fanning and bearding?


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

It's a queen.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

The mating flights I've observed at the end was different. The first time I saw it what caught my eye got a reaction like this:
OMG giant bees are attacking my hive! 
We watch our hives from the back door with binoculars a lot. Bee watchers lol. 
They all look giant when viewed thru a distance with good optics. 

Upon taking a closer look at the hive entrance the giant bees were drones. It was like a drone-attack.
Drones drones drones...

If you look at the video there is not one drone so I don't think it's a queen returning from a mating flight. 
Just guessing but If it is a queen and it is unmated then it's probably "an extra" that came along with the swarm. That happens. Have received gift virgin queens from people who caught a swarm with multiple virgins. (more than once)


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## fortytwo (May 9, 2017)

Where is the video?


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)




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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)

In case there was any confusion, this hive is about a year old. This is not a captured swarm. This hive just released a swarm, who took the original queen with it. So I think must be an virgin queen that just hatched out.
Although the video doesn't show any drones, there were many of the big guys crawling around on the ground beneath the hive and flying in the vicinity. Hopefully she had a successful venture out and I'll see some eggs in the coming weeks!


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## fortytwo (May 9, 2017)

Rhdcarpenter said:


>


There is something strange with my browser or forum account or something. 
I know you posted the link to the video as I can see it in the email notification that I received. 
I cannot seen it here. 
When I click Reply With Quote then the link to the video shows up in the text 
But when I hit Save the reply, I don't see the link in the quoted text block. 
What could be causing the link to the video to be invisible?


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)

I can see the video in the post on my laptop, but not my cell or tablet. As a follow up to my original post, the hive did the same swarming/bearding behavior today. I went out for a closer look and again saw the queen taking a stroll on the outside of the hive. This time, I'm 100% sure I saw the queen. I will upload the video later today, but here are a few screen grabs in the meantime. Still not sure what is going on here. Practice swarming, maybe?


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)

Here's a wide shot of the whole hive


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)




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## fortytwo (May 9, 2017)

That many bees on the outside looks like a swarm about to happen. So you have some other equipment you can splitb them into?


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## Rhdcarpenter (May 9, 2017)

They beat me to the split and did end up swarming again today. We caught it and hived it. Now that's two swarms from this hive, so I don't want anymore taking off. Should I go ahead and pinch out all but two capped queen cells? Or just leave one?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

For those that don't see a link above, the way the video is linked is mal-formed for some reason. Here is a link that should work:
https://vimeo.com/216859109


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