Interesting! I knew the queen would kill rivals, but didn't know she'd kill workers, too. It seems counter-productive for her survival unless the workers showed some sign of hostility toward her, first.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Do you remember which hive you took the workers from? My arm waving hypothesis is that they are are from a different queen-line, with theoretically distinct pheromone profiles.
I had one of those, I carefully removed the dead ones with tweezers before placing them in the mating nuc, I like to hang the cages between a frame with brood so I know there's nurse bees there and candy hole tilted at about 30 degrees higher so if any of the attendees die they won't block queen and others from accessing the candy. I also make a suspension hook from .020" SS safety wire. works on JZ-BZy and the older style wooden shipping cages, this way I can look without disturbing the bees and know it hasn't fallen face down to the bottom of the hive, maybe I'm lucky, but I had 100% acceptanc, return mated and laying on my virgins from Cory.
Interesting! I knew the queen would kill rivals, but didn't know she'd kill workers, too. It seems counter-productive for her survival unless the workers showed some sign of hostility toward her, first.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Do you remember which hive you took the workers from? My arm waving hypothesis is that they are are from a different queen-line, with theoretically distinct pheromone profiles.
I had one of those, I carefully removed the dead ones with tweezers before placing them in the mating nuc, I like to hang the cages between a frame with brood so I know there's nurse bees there and candy hole tilted at about 30 degrees higher so if any of the attendees die they won't block queen and others from accessing the candy. I also make a suspension hook from .020" SS safety wire. works on JZ-BZy and the older style wooden shipping cages, this way I can look without disturbing the bees and know it hasn't fallen face down to the bottom of the hive, maybe I'm lucky, but I had 100% acceptanc, return mated and laying on my virgins from Cory.
❤,
Plot twist, you put her in a queenless hive and a week later all the bees have been killed by HER O_O
🤣