Maybe she's piping, waiting to hear an answer from one of those sealed cells. If she hears an answer, she may go and sting the queens. It's what I'm thinking about it.
Well this is what Im wondering. Did she know they were there? They were just capped. It was 8 days after I looked in the queen cups and saw nothing but obviously there were eggs in them. So can a queen sense queen brood? Even a virgin queen does not produce pheromone for a while. This queen is also the smallest one I have ever seen. She was barley bigger than the workers. Just a tad bit bigger. I dont think I would have ever seen her if she was not giving her self away with the piping. I have read that sometimes they pipe to try to gain the approval of the colony when more than one queen is present but thats not the case here. Being that she is so small is it possible that the colony was not to thrilled with her and she was begging them to destroy the queen cells and chose her. It just seems kind of odd. If I had not seen her laying eggs I would have thought she was a virgin because she is so tiny. Are small queens like this usually poor performers? If I had known before I orderd queens that I would have my own home raised one I would much rather have big fat juicy queens like the one my girls raised for me last year unless size does not matter but you would think it does. The bigger should mean larger ovaries, more room for sperm storage and likly larger ability to produce and lay eggs correct? If a queen can lay her own weight in eggs a day, a small queen is at a disadvantage from the start huh?
Just poking around in the dark here folks. Looking for opinions.
Annette
My four mated queen were in a battery box together. Maybe this had something to do with it.
