Queen maturity
How many days after emergence does it take for the queen to reach sexual maturity, and when does she begin laying eggs?
Sexual maturity :
- 5–6 days
- 8–9 days
- 2–3 days
Onset of egg laying :
- 24 hours after the nuptial flight
- 4 days after the nuptial flight
- 8–15 days after emergence
View answer
Correct answer: Sexual maturity: 1 ; Onset of egg laying: 3
Five to six days after emerging from the queen cell, or 22 days after the laying of a fertilized egg, the queen reaches sexual maturity.
From about the 6th day after emergence, the queen undertakes her nuptial flights and is fertilized by numerous drones (probably more than twenty). Typically, the queen begins laying eggs around 8–15 days after emergence. Young queens that are well attended by their retinue may start laying as early as 24 hours after the last mating flight. A queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day (equivalent to her own body weight), about 130,000 eggs per year, or roughly 500,000 eggs over her lifetime.
For further reading:
► Principles and methods of queen rearing
► Choosing the type of queen (F0 or F1?)