Queens and Mites

[Jen]

In my 15+ years of beekeeping, I have never seen a queen with a mite on her, and have never seen a queen with deformed wing virus? Could she be immune to mite damage?

[RAST]

I "think" the workers would groom the mites from her as they will sometimes do the paint of a marked queen. No idea on DWV.

[Jen]

Rast, that is a good point. So it must be when the mites are dining on the bees, in turn weakening the bees.. is what brings the virus's, including DWV, to the bees. So if the bees are constantly grooming the queen, that might explain some things.

[Bakersdozen]

I "think" the workers would groom the mites from her as they will sometimes do the paint of a marked queen. No idea on DWV.

I agree with RAST's statement.  Bees with DWV have been infected with the virus while in the pupae stage.  Queens hatched with DWV would be unable to fly or mate.  I would assume the colony would do away with her or she would die on her own because infected bees are not viable and die soon.  So, in the case of supercedure or swarm cells, this could be a reason why some colonies mysteriously become queenless.