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Date: | Mon, 22 May 2023 22:26:46 -0400 |
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As most of you know, I collect quite a bit of data. Here is the temperature record of the colony I miss took for laying worker.
https://mybroodminder.com/share/hives/79af180f75ef4a8bb49ba49cc749349b
https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/IMTLORNE3
I also looked back at the info/observations I took from April 6 (1st Patty), May 2nd (1st Inspection) and May 20th (2nd inspection). I did some back calculating to try and determine when the early spring queen (pre-1st pollen) would have emerged.
I attached the timeline and internal temperatures. One of my sensors failed earlier in the winter. See dark blue temperature in Double Boomer hive temp chart (scale under hive). I use anywhere from 6 to 20 sensors per hive, so I developed a numbering convention to track position. Patty was added on same day on the Boomer colony as this colony that I am describing.
My best guess is the 1st egg laid by the old queen April 8 or April 9th. Central temperatures are pretty steady around 30C and bees are likely clustered around central area to protect the small nest. The temperature of the nest starts dropping below 30C on April 23rd the day before I estimate the new queen would emerge (16 days)
On April 29th at 3:30pm the the internal temperature spike above and below the cluster. The temperatures above and below the slatted rack spikes. Could this be a cleansing flight? or is it the virgin dispatching the old queen?
On May 2nd, I do my first inspection, I find the old marked queen outside the hive, some capped drone brood, no eggs/or larvae. The colony is jammed packed with bees (8-9 frames worth). More bees than in fall. Lots of drones and young worker bees.
Note: during all of winter I find plenty of dead drones while cleaning out entrances and taking my bee samples.
And now to the events of May 20th and 21st. I saw evidence of multiple eggs and off centered laying, capped drone brood (I use a medium frame in my deeps for drones comb mite sampling) and 2 frames of open brood (I was seeing a lot of drone brood on the edges but the larvae was too small). I likely had a case of confirmation bias. I was seeing flat capped cells but my brain knew the queen had died, multiple eggs and off-centered laying.
So this young queen seems to be mated. How well time will tell.. I will move her to a nuc this week to see how she does. The hive next to this one was a very large double with many drones. Likely some of them were overwintered drones or this colony (old failing queen was able to produce very early drones). This strong double has a healthy population 14-16 frames of bees. The queen is now producing 50/50 worker to drone cells. I was able to split it into 4 very strong nucs.
Can a queen be mated inside the hive? Are drones able to do the deed without flying? It looks like the possible mating flight occurred during a warmer day. The high slatted rack and bottom board temperatures tell me that the bees likely bearded outside the hive. It coincided with the warmest part of the day.
My guess is this supersedure event could not have happened without the pollen patty. For those like me with very long winters, early patties has proven to be extremely beneficial.
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