I am grateful for all the suggestions on finding the queen, particularly
the idea of setting up a nuc close by to lure some of the others away.
When we are preparing our display case for school classes we need to
include the queen. Its amazing how many times that little lady can
disappear, even when she is marked!  Picture this -  it is 7 am and we
have a 100 km drive in front of us to the school who has booked us to
tell their little darlings all about the wonders of honey bees.  We are
all packed ready to go, all we have to do is get two frames of bees
including the queen.  Fine, nice frames showing sealed & unsealed brood,
pollen, sealed & unsealed honey, lots of bees but where the hell is the
queen.  So far, touch wood, she has always turned up but the day is
going to come when our patience runs out or we actually decide to file
for divorce right there in the middle of a paddock full of bee hives!
As it is winter here in south eastern Australia at the moment we do not
have any school bookings but come the spring we will be up and running
again.  I can't wait to try this new method of queen-finding (and I am
going to try the water spray idea too).
Thank you all,
Anne Brown
Browns Busy Bees