I have a question that's been bugging me the last two days.  I had a couple of virgins emerge in the last week of October.  We've had cold weather since with only 3 or 4 days where the temperatures approached 70 F when the bees were flying well.  I've seen a few drones in the hives.

Last Saturday, I checked the nucs I was hoping to overwinter these virgins in.  Both queens were good size, the abdomens seemed a little larger than the last I'd seen them.  There were no eggs though.  I dispatched the 1st queen but then stopped short of doing the same with the second queen to check my regular hives first.

My regular hives were in good shape, good stores, brood-rearing shut down (about a month earlier than last year!).  Here is my question: could have my virgins gotten well mated on those few nice days but simply did not lay eggs because of the late season?  Does anyone have experience with late mated queens not laying until the next spring?

I thought there would have been a few eggs even if the workers decided to eat them...  I carefully checked several frames.  I'll give the second queen another week...

Thanks!

Waldemar

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