[wfuavenger]

I am under the impression that a queen bee will pip when she is a virgin. Does a mated queen pip? We were inspecting a small ferel hive that was captured and the queen started piping when we found her. Thoughts?

 

[tecumseh]

yes a mated queen will pipe. especially if she get excited and begins running they will pipe quite frequently. I think I read somewhere (winston likely) that her piping temporarily freezes the the workers that are directly around her.

 

[G3farms]

Yes a mated queen will pipe, she is looking for any challengers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBlI1sgczVY

Here is a pretty good video, many may have heard it but just did not recognize the sound. The first sound of piping is about 2:45

 

[Mama Beek]

that is way cool! Thanks for posting that, I had been wondering what that sounded like.

 

[BjornBee]

I've heard them pipe under stress also.

I've located many virgin queens from piping after going into a hive that was full of opening swarm cells.

 

[wfuavenger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qXLEZejRow there is another good one, you can see her running and piping. notice the bees around her... they all freeze in place while she pipes..