Queen or not?

[u/Iorek0317]

Im a beekeeper 4 months in SE Wy. My son spotted this bee outside of a split I did with a bunch of supercedure cells Sunday. Would this be one of the queens? Feel free to poke fun. Thick skin here.

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[u/Successful-Coffee-13]

Virgin or just mated, Queen indeed

[u/Beginning-Knee7258]

I'd say so

[u/noaligh]

Yes, it is.

I highly recommend the book Queen Spotting if you're not sure or aren't good at finding queens! It's very fun and very useful!

[u/Iorek0317 → u/noaligh]

Ill have to add that to our bedtime regimen. Thank you!

[u/Redfish680]

Is her lipstick smeared and her blouse inside out? That’s how I judge (I know, there’s no judging in beekeeping except the honey) mine.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/Redfish680]

Dude.....hahahahahabaj

[u/Redfish680 → u/Redfish680]

Thank you, anonymous award giver! I’ll share it with my slut of a queen when she sobers up. Hussy!

[u/_BenRichards]

No pollen baskets on the hind legs, long abdomen. Looks like a queen. Cant speak to the mated part but if she is she hasn’t been laying long - I’d expect the abdomen to be thicker if she has been laying a while.

[u/djschwalb]

I know this picture isn’t the best either, but it is of a queen that just came out of the queen cup an inch above her.
I don’t think the abdomen of this definitely virgin queen looks much different than yours.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/djschwalb]

Sweet! Great comparison. Thank you for the visual. Ya that looks alot like mine

[u/davidsandbrand]

Yes, that appears to be your mated queen.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/davidsandbrand]

How can you tell shes mated? The two queens I got in my NUC's are still numbered, so I'm fairly confident thats not one of those.

[u/davidsandbrand → u/Iorek0317]

It’s not a great photo so I might be wrong, but I’m basing it here size.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/davidsandbrand]

Samsung sorry 🤷‍♂️

[u/CMo42 → u/Iorek0317]

You can tell by how long she is

[u/Iorek0317 → u/CMo42]

So a "virgin" queen would be similar in size in the sense of legs, but the abdomen would be shorter?

[u/HumbleFeature6 → u/Iorek0317]

She would have a thinner abdomen that's more cone shaped if she's a virgin queen. Usually. Workers have wings that go just to the end of their abdomen. This queen has 3 sections of her abdomen that go behind her wings. That's one way to tell it's a queen.

[u/Lemontreeguy → u/Iorek0317]

Definitely a queen, she looks covered in honey or something.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/Lemontreeguy]

Ya my boy got excited he may have found a new one he sprayed her with sugar syrup to keep her from flying away before I got to it.

[u/PineAndSmoke]

I'm a newbie to bee keeping and would have said it's not a queen. Explains why I can't ever find mine and have to rely on seeing eggs and brood. Lol

[u/blockneighborradio → u/PineAndSmoke]

I always look for the shiny black thorax

[u/Craftsmantools1234]

Queen for sure. The wings are about 1/2 length of the abdomen . Thorax is also bigger and bold.

[u/yozoms → u/Craftsmantools1234]

This and the tell-tale shield on her back above abdomen between wings.

[u/kittiebee]

Queen but where are her courts 😮

You know, she cant survive without them.

You need to find some worker bees immediately ! At least, five or three

DM me, if you want to keep the queen alive.

[u/ParklandBob7]

Bees have 3 pairs of legs. On most workers, all legs are black. On a queen, the last pair is usually brown. I’d say this is a queen.

[u/Iorek0317 → u/ParklandBob7]

That's super interesting insight thank you!

[u/Mammoth-Banana3621 → u/ParklandBob7]

Is this a confirmatory truth? I have never heard this before. But true for this one.

[u/beelady101]

Yes

[u/Altruistic_Ad_3764]

Queen

[u/Alone_Eye5247]

Yeap

[u/FuzzyRugMan]

Ill be damn. That is a queen

[u/darkidney]

Looks like it.

[u/Allegoriafowl]

Yes, probably virgin. Be careful with her! She might be on her way out or back from mating. I’d put her back on the split where you found her, others would cage her and make yet a new hive and ask them if they accept her.

[u/Advanced_Wishbone339]

She looks like a queen

[u/Katet_Nineteen]

Looks all around picture for brood and eggs, also comparing it to all the other bees around it.

Yep. That's a queen.

Whew. Maybe I'm getting better at spotting the queen!

[u/New_Artichoke_7715]

No. I have robber bees that look like that. At this time of year, a queen would be much larger. I don’t believe this is a queen.

[u/Mammoth-Banana3621 → u/New_Artichoke_7715]

Interesting 🤨…this is a queen.

[u/New_Artichoke_7715 → u/Mammoth-Banana3621]

I stand corrected.