an Anne Bennett snip...
If the hive hadn't had all these problems but for some reason the
queen had died during the winter, and a new queen had been raised
but could not go on a mating flight for several weeks or months
because of the weather, would she simply become a drone layer and
would the colony die out when the oldest workers reached their end
of life some time in the late spring?  Or would the virgin queen
finally fly out and mate once the weather warmed up?

my comment...
It is my understanding that a virgin has a limit time to mate and after that she may lay a few eggs but generally does not last very long.  With small cluster of bees in very cold climates you might also wonder about the sperm the existing queen has stored and if the cold weather negatively impact the queens ability to lay fertilized eggs.

I have found that queens that mate in sub optimal periods of the season generally don't last very long anyway.

Gene Ash

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