MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

184 DR. miller'sA. Yes.Q. If a queen is never allowed to mate with a drone, wouldshe lay fertile eggs?A. If she lays eggs at all, they will produce only drones.Q. How many times does a queen mate?A. Once for life; but some cases have been reported in whicha queen mated the second time. She may, however, make severalflights before mating.Q. How long will it take after a queen is hatched for her tomate?A. Five days or longer.Q. Do you agree that a queen is never mated after she is twoor three weeks old? Last March I had a colony of bees supersedeits queen, and this colony contained just a small patch ofdrone-brood which did not hatch till the queen was about 10 daysold, and there was no other drone-brood in the yard. The queencommenced to lay when she was about two months old, and nowshe is the mother of one of the strongest colonies. I give thissimply for what it is worth. I examined this colony once everytwo days, till the queen started to lay, and so these figures areaccurate.A. As a general rule a queen is never mated after she is 10days old—perhaps not after she is a week old. But there are exceptions,and how far those exceptions extend I don't know. Ifyour queen did not lay till two months old, she may have beenfertilized only three days before she began to lay, and she mayhave been fertilized sooner, but likely she was at least a monthold when fertilized. This is exceptional.Q. Do you think queens would mate with drones a mile away?There is a big woods between us.A. Yes, a distance greater than that would not preventmating.aQ. How far away from other bees would we have to placecolony to insure pure mating?A. You might be safe at two miles, but to be entirely safeyou might have to be five miles or more. Xo one knows exactlyhow far.Q. Please say how queen-breeders mate queens purely whilebees of other "nationalities" are present.A. They don't; at least not always. For if it is desired to keepa certain kind pure, they do not have any other kind in the apiary.Put something may be done toward getting what you want in'this way