# Has anyone ever see DWV virgin queens?



## TooFarGone (Aug 19, 2012)

I was wondering if anyone had ever seen Deformed Wing Virus affected virgin queens? Has anyone seen Verroa mite infestation of a capped queen cell? I have not seen any mention of this finding in my reading. I was wondering if the mites can survive in the royal jelly bath inside the queen cells. 

Thanks

TooFarGone


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## JD's Bees (Nov 25, 2011)

I saw one varroa mite in a Q cell I opened last year.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

If you think about it, it's a numbers game. Q-cells are highly attended as well, but with so few available at any given time I would assume rate of inhabitation by mites is fairly low naturally.


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## deejaycee (Apr 30, 2008)

Royal jelly is a repellant to varroa. that's why they don't infest queen cells or tend to attach to adult queens, therefore you're not going to see typical varroa-carried viruses commonly in queens. 

If you think about it, even in worker brood, the royal jelly being fed to the youngest larvae is a clear message to any passing varroa that the brood is too young to bother entering that cell. Only when the larvae are older and not being fed royal jelly is the cell infested.


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## bhfury (Nov 25, 2008)

My pea brain says...I think it's a numbers game. The live cycle of the varroa doesn't match up to that of a queen cell.


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## TooFarGone (Aug 19, 2012)

Deejaycee- Interesting idea about royal jelly being a varroa repellant. 

JD - any idea how many queen cells you have seen that did not have varroa? Just trying to get a handle on the occurence rate.

Thanks


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I seem to recall something about viruses being specifric to the workers and not the queens or drones. AFB, not a virus, doers not effect drone larvae and pupae. The same may be true for viruses.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

A virus can infect a developing queen. BQCV
http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/bpp/insect_clinic/diseases/Black Queen-Cell Virus.pdf

Black Queen-Cell Virus 
Causative Agent: Virus 
Range: North America, Great Britain & Australia 
Life cycle: 
• Virus primarily attacks developing queens and in rare instances will affect developing 
workers 
• Infected pupae die, darken, and the walls of the cell develop black patches.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I have had virgins hatch in my incubator that have DWV or at least what looks exactly like it, although the queens looked totally healthy other than the wings. Wish I'd taken a pic. Now I only use cell raisers with a pretty low mite population, just in case.

I realised also that this could have been happening in my operation totally unnoticed. I'll put cells in the nucs then they don't get looked at again for 3 weeks. If any virgins had DWV they would be long gone, I would just think it failed to mate.


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## JD's Bees (Nov 25, 2011)

I just had some extra cells, maybe about 10, so I was opening them up to see how the queens looked. Only saw the one mite.
As Oldtimer said, the cells get placed into nucs and we are not there to see what else emerges with the queen. Without ripping open cells it would be hard to know how often they may have mites.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

BEES4U said:


> A virus can infect a developing queen. BQCV
> http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/bpp/insect_clinic/diseases/Black%20Queen-Cell%20Virus.pdf
> 
> Black Queen-Cell Virus
> ...


Yup, forgot about those. Should have looked it up.That's what is so great about our collective knowledge. Self correcting. Thanks Ernie.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

I made a couple nucs up late in the summer of 2011, my first year with bees, and let them raise their own queens. I went out to check on them a couple weeks later and seen a cluster of bees on the ground so I sifted through them to see what was up and sure enough there was a virgin queen, her wings all deformed. That is the only one I have seen though in my limited experience with virgin queens, most all have been nervous gals until they started to lay!!!

Been searching threads on queen rearing and cant wait till next month to start grafting and experimenting with queen rearing!!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Most queens that have crumpled wings are caused by rough handling of the queen cell and the wing buds get damages.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I've never seen DWV on queens, but have seen varroa on developing queens. Last year I broke open a queen cell that didn't emerge to find a dead queen with a single mite attached.


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## papar (Apr 10, 2007)

I thought I had DWV with queens I raised from cells- I later found out that what I thought was DWV was actually cell damage( the cells were handled a few times before being planted)


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