Queen Mating Flights.

[Steve 1972]

What is the earliest from emergence has anyone seen a virgin Queen laying (mated by the way )..the reason i ask..i opened a Queen cell on Saturday 16th and watched the virgin walk out onto the comb..we are forecast good weather in my area from Wednesday up to the weekend where it is supposed to go pants again...i know we have up to five weeks but this waiting game stresses the life out of me through several laying worker colonies over the past few years..
Cheers
Steve.

[AdamD]

The quickest I've seen is 8 days from emergence to eggs. (The queen is mature enough to mate after 4 - 5 days). The quickest time from mating to laying is 2 days in a mini-nuc*. It generally takes longer for her to start to lay in a bigger colony.

*I know this timing, as one year I waited for weeks for good weather and we got just one day of 21 degrees surrounded by coolness before and after. 2 days after that one warm day, all my queens started to come into lay.

[Murox]

Queens generally do not become sexually mature until they are 6 days old. Then if the weather is favourable, she flies and she mates, potentially laying her first egg 2 – 3 days later. It might take as long as 16-23 days before a new queen lays her first egg.

[AdamD]

Thanks for correcting me - I could well be a day early. Occasionally, as you say Murox, queens can take what seems an age to start laying - usually in bigger colonies. My bet guess is that it takes a while for her pheromone to fully develop and spread around a large colony. I don't recall seeing any research on it.