Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Jen on May 17, 2019, 12:39:00 am
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Has anyone heard the term 'Alpha Queen' before? And what does that mean?
reup
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Reup :)
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Never heard of it.
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Hi Iddee, I haven't either! There is a beekeeper in our bee club that talks of queens becoming laying obsessed, that beekeepers can't keep up with. He calls them Alpha queens, and considers them a huge problem plugging out the hives with brood.
To me, it sounds like it's mismanagement of the hive. If you don't split the hive when needed, and just keep adding boxes, then yah that would be a problem.
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There's about 6000 to 7000 cells on a deep frame. For a queen to fill even a double deep in 21 days, she would have to lay about 6000 eggs a day. I don't think any queen is going to lay anywhere near that many. In my opinion, your friend is hallucinating.
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interesting. I would recommend having the keep register for the forum and post. Sounds like a good topic of discussion
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Thank you for your help guys. He does this every spring when the queens are rearing up and laying quickly, and the hive soon swarms. He calls these alpha queens 'bat poop crazy'
I just wanted to make sure of this term before I call him out.
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The term Alpha is used to refer to a dominant or the highest level in a group. That is what the Queen is anyway. So this terminology doesn't really mean anything to me.
I never heard anybody complain about a queen that was a good egg laying machine. It's the beekeeper's job to manage the colony and take advantage of a queen like that.
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Thanks for posting that Bakersdozen. I had very similar thoughts.
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Baker! That's what I thought as well! I was walking around the house saying to myself "All queens are alpha!" But then I thought before I go after him with my sword and fencing suit.. I'd better make sure of this!
You guys made my day ;D