Virgin queens appear to have little queen pheromone and often do not
appear to be recognized as queens by the workers. A virgin queen in her
first few hours after emergence can be placed into the entrance of any
queenless hive or nuc and acceptance is usually very good, whereas a
mated queen is usually recognized as a stranger and runs a high risk of
being killed by the older workers. When a young virgin queen emerges from a queen cell, she will generally
seek out virgin queen rivals and attempt to kill them. Virgin queens
will quickly find and kill (by stinging) any other emerged virgin queen
(or be dispatched themselves), as well as any unemerged queens. Queen
cells that are opened on the side indicate that a virgin queen was
likely killed by a rival virgin queen. When a colony remains in swarm
mode after the prime swarm has left, the workers may prevent virgins
from fighting and one or several virgins may go with after-swarms. Other
virgins may stay behind with the remnant of the hive. As many as 21
virgin queens have been counted in a single large swarm. When the
after-swarm settles into a new home, the virgins will then resume normal
behavior and fight to the death until only one remains. If the prime
swarm has a virgin queen and the old queen, the old queen will usually
be allowed to live. The old queen continues laying. Within a couple of
weeks she will die a natural death and the former virgin, now mated,
will take her place.Unlike the worker bees, the queen's stinger is not barbed. The queen can sting repeatedly without dying.
Note: you cannot start a colony with a Queen only, you need a nucleus or full colony of Bees.
Introducing a Queen into a colony is never 100% successful, we are not responsible if your queen is not accepted