In my early days, I was lucky enough to observe queens being held in cells
by the workers--me being alerted by the piping and quacking. I encourage
all beekeepers to listen for this, and open the hive to see it for
themselves--the workers sealing the lid back on the cell as fast as the
unemerged queen is chewing her way around it.
My record for number of queens counted in a swarm is 18--it was apparently
a combined swarm that was almost equal in size to my wife's body outline
when she stood next to it. It filled several Langstroth deeps when
transferred, and had bent over and broken a 1" diameter trunk of the young
tree that it had formed on.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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