Virgin queens piping

These two queens emerged in roller cages in the incubator and have been calling back and forward to each other for two days.

The piping sound is made by vibrating the wings and is a territorial declaration.
If two virgin queens meet in a hive a fight to the death will ensue.
Some queens even pipe before emergence from the queen cell and in this case a free virgin may locate the cell and sting into it to kill the occupant.

Piping is also thought to be a signal which allows workers to keep queens confined within the cells to avoid fighting between the virgin queens.

4 Responses to Virgin queens piping

  1. Hello
    one short question before i will order some queens with paypal.
    Would you deliver to Germany?
    I am the second man from a blacl bee rearing group here in germany, and we need a second genetic different blood line who is different from our other pure queens.
    I would be very happy if you could help us.
    Best wishes
    Simon Bach

    • Jonathan Getty says:

      Simon.
      At the moment I am only supplying in N Ireland and UK. If I were to send to Germany I would have to organise a health certificate toexport. You best option would probably be to try and source more locally. Please keep in touch and I would be interested to hear about your work with black bees in Germany. There is always a pathogen risk with moving bees around from one place to another although I appreciate that the risk with queens is very low.

      Best wishes,

      Jonathan Getty

  2. Werner says:

    Good morning Mr Jonathan Getty,

    We are a small community that has agreed to protect and spread the dark bee in Germany. We are looking for purebred dark bee. Preservation of our dark bee is achieved by instructive insemination.
    Would you be ready for 2020 to support our community by selling us bee queen.
    We would be deeply grateful to you.

    With friendly greetings from Germany

    Werner

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