# Unmated queen



## bertoid (Jun 30, 2009)

Hi all,

I'm a first-year bee wrangler in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I had a single hive on our urban lot, and now we have three... My hive swarmed three times a couple of weeks ago (once on a Thursday and twice, simultaneously, on a Saturday). All the swarms were captured and either put into new hives or reintegrated into the old. (The first and third went into their own boxes and both have eggs in the cells this week). The second swarm was reintroduced to the remaining bees in the original hive. I would guess that both groups would have had a virgin queen, although there is likely only one now. The reintroduction seemed to go well and when I went to inspect that hive this past monday (about 10 days after reintroduction and about 14 days after the swarming), I saw no eggs. The bees seem to be happy and busy, and I did see an unmated queen running about in the bottom deep box. She was running over the tops of the worker bees and had no attendents. While she also looked healthy, she was obviously unmated.

My question is whether there is still a chance that she will take her mating flight in the next week or if I should just requeen. I would like to keep her if possible. Since I know that the queen in the third swarm was able to get out and mate, there should be no reason for her not to get out and party with the boys (e.g., lack of drones in the area, etc). Is there a general time-line for her to mate, or can I wait for another week or two? I certainly don't want to lose the whole colony...

Cheers!
-bert-


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## paulnewbee1 (Jan 27, 2007)

well if you have a queen and she is new it may take up to 5 to eight days to mate then she will start laying a few days latter. 

just leave her alone and don't go into the hive for about a week then check if you have brood. 

the weather play a big part in the mating of the queen if it is cold she wont mate 


just my thoughts this was about a pennies worth of thought.


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## jbw (Mar 8, 2009)

She will mate and lay. Be patient. Really.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

If the weather has been good for mating I would give her no more than 10 to 14 days to mate and begin laying. It can take longer if the weather is spotty ( high winds, rain, or too cool). It could add a little time if the virgin you added had to duke it out with another. Hopefully one intact queen emerged victorious.


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## bertoid (Jun 30, 2009)

Thanks for the input. I'll check the hive again this weekend and see if there are eggs yet. The workers are all still hard at it and there is no change in the sound or activity from prior to the swarm (that is, there are still the clouds of bees coming back from foraging in the afternoon and lots of activity from early morning to late at night, etc), so I figure things are going according to whatever plan they have. 

Cheers,
-bert-


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## localwhale (Apr 19, 2009)

I went through a similar situation with a virgin queen a little while back. Constant rain kept her from mating, I panicked and ordered a new queen, and when I got back in the hive to find and remove her I started looking closely and she had filled 3 frames with eggs in the two days it took to get the new queen. Ever since she's been doing great.

I took the new queen I ordered and made a split from my strongest hive. Everyone is happy and strong now.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I've seen newly emerged queens take anywhere from 4 to 24 days to mate and start to lay enough that I can find eggs. Quite a wide range, I'm afraid. Typically it takes 14 days.


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## bertoid (Jun 30, 2009)

Well, it seems my fears were unfounded. I went into the hive today to take a look and there were eggs and larvae throughout the bottom and second-story deeps. I must've missed the eggs when I was looking last weekend. This is great, since the newborn queens in two hives were able to mate and start laying on their own, despite the fact that I live in a moderately urban environment. 

Nothing like working a hive in 94 degree weather, too.


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