Mating Plug

[Alastair]

Came across this today, in a hive with a failing queen, the bees have raised a replacement and she just got back from a mating flight when I opened the hive, here she is showing the mating plug

 

[Alastair]

Also shows the lottery of queens produced from queens that have hybrid bees. As the bees in the pic vary from black to mostly yellow, so the queen produced could be any of those colurs, depending on what genetics ended up in the egg she was raised from.

 

[Trevor Gillbanks]

@Alastair . Great photo. I have seen this a few times also. How long before the plug is removed?
Does she remove it, or do the workers help her with removal?

 

[Alastair]

Best I can tell the plug can stay in several hours. The one in the picture is very fresh, but they dry up into a small white thing and fall out eventually. I have never seen the worker bees take any interest in them, you would think the bees would pull the plug out but they don't seem to.