# Tattered Wings on new queen.



## Arkansas Beekeeper (May 23, 2010)

I was preparing my Cloake board for tomorrows graft. When I located the queen, I noticed her wings looked chewed and tattered. I raised this queen this year from a swarm cell. She is laying very well. Is chewing off a queen's wing normal behavior?


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Nope. But what the heck, you've got not only a good laying queen but a fiesty survivor as well and one that won't swarm.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

Do your queen's wings look something like this? I hadn't noticed wings like that either. I posted in this thread about it. Sometimes those mating flights are hard on the queens.


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

Noticed a one year old queen this week with no wings.


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

I've seen queens with no wings in hives that have more than one queen. It's always the older of the 2 that is wingless seems that the older queen is superceded but isn't killed. I would have a look for another younger queen in that hive.


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

I split the hives into 2-3 nucs so if there was a second queen I'm not sure where she may have ended up.
In another yard a nuc had a queen missing 2 legs on one side and my thinking was in line with yours that the hive must have had two queens and I had kept the younger queen on the original stand.


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## Batman (Jun 7, 2009)

My parents were down for Mother's day and while they were here, it was kind of late, so my dad and I walked out just to take a glance at the hives. We were not planning on doing and inspection or anything, just wanted to view them from a far. While we are watching some late bees come and go, I look down and saw a queen crawling on the ground near us, away from all the hives. Her wing on one side completely removed and a the other wing was almost gone as well. I just figured that they wanted her replaced, but didn't want to swarm, so the took her wings and kicked her out, but I don't know that for a fact or anything.

C2


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

Frazzle I noticed the exact same thing earlier this spring. I had a really big black queen that was mated last spring. Well this spring I noticed her in the hive and she had absolutely no wings at all, she appeared healthy other than that and was still laying well. A coupld frames over I found another laying queen she was a normal blonde color queen. Both queens lived together for over a month before I split the hive taking one of the queens.


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## Luke (Sep 8, 2003)

I have a queen just like that too. The bees are making queen cells in that hive. It is my most productive hive this year so I am planning on removing her and putting in a queen from a nuc. I don't want to risk swarming or lose time waiting for a new one to come on line.


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