whats the latest in the year that you've seen queens get mated at?

the reason i ask i that i took a queen out of a nuc last saturday and placed her in a full queenless hive,if they have drawn any good queen cells i might leave one to see what happens rather than unit.
Darren

I've noticed that the drones are looking less cocky when flying back into the hives!

So I fancy your new Qs will be too late...

I have had queens mated in early october in the past,but the weather and availability of drones is the major factor.

Hi BLD why not buy a Queen and save 4 to 6 week's, you may then have a Queen laying within 4 to 10 days or so. You also risk having a poorly mated Queen. Andy.

AFAIK the queens on hamsptead heath get mated 365 days a year!!!

i'll get my coat.

In my first year I had the bee inspector visit in the middle of September. One colony still had drones and was in the middle of superceding. He told me to let them get on with it. There was a mated and laying queen the following spring.

Frisbee

Darren, leave the bees to it. I was through a couple of colonies belonging to a friend yesterday evening and they have plenty of drones in them. My own observation is that colonies with recently mated Queens in them still have their drones present but I am starting to see some of my colonies with queens mated in the early summer beginning to harass drones....
I have one queen that has just started to lay within the past couple of days (capped QC placed in a 6F Nuc on 28th July, Q emerged approx. 1st August) and she has produced a nice laying pattern across 2 frames. I'll know if she is properly mated next week...

drstitson said:

AFAIK the queens on hamsptead heath get mated 365 days a year!!!

i'll get my coat.

Click to expand...

Hilarious! That's the funniest thing I have heard all week. Nice one!

Frisbee said:

In my first year I had the bee inspector visit in the middle of September. One colony still had drones and was in the middle of superceding. He told me to let them get on with it. There was a mated and laying queen the following spring.

Frisbee

Click to expand...

Which just goes to show the bees know what they're doing a long time before we do.

biglongdarren said:

the reason i ask i that i took a queen out of a nuc last saturday and placed her in a full queenless hive,if they have drawn any good queen cells i might leave one to see what happens rather than unit.
Darren

Click to expand...

Don't have the time to stand and watch. Rude and intrusive anyway!!!

drstitson said:

AFAIK the queens on hamsptead heath get mated 365 days a year!!!

i'll get my coat.

Click to expand...

Don't have the time to stand and watch. Rude and intrusive anyway!!!

:smilielol5::smilielol5: