Obee1
Field Bee
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
- Messages
- 962
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- South Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 11 ish plus some nucs
I have a virgin queen emerged on Sunday and put straight into a mini mating nuc in my back yard. It's now Saturday and at 15.30 I noticed a gathering of bees standing outside the nuc entrance. I went for a closer look and actually saw the queen (she's marked) flying round the yard. It's 22C and sunny but a little windy. She circled a few times and landed on 4 different things. Each time she lifted her butt in the air and circled it round whilst rubbing her abdomen with first one back leg then the other. After about 5 minutes she flew back into the mating nuc.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Any idea why it's done? I don't know if she had already been on a mating flight or just popped out of the nuc when I spotted her flying round.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Any idea why it's done? I don't know if she had already been on a mating flight or just popped out of the nuc when I spotted her flying round.
