Walter T. Weller wrote:
>
> What's a better way to find and catch the queen (unmarked) in a normal
> colony (i.e., two deeps full of bees and brood)?  My straightforward
> approach of pulling frames and looking them over, one by one, doesn't
> work very well for me.  My eyeglasses get covered with sweat so I can't
> see, and I get covered with mad bees stinging through my bee-suit, before
> I find the old lady.
 
Hi Walter,
 
The idea of inserting an excluder between the two brood chambers is a
good one as it halves the size of the hive.  There are two problems to
this, 1. You have to wait about three days after inserting the excluder
before you re-examine the hive and 2. the queen may have stopped laying
in which case you have wasted you time.
I don't like the idea of shaking all the bees out on to a sheet as it is
going to be difficult to concentrate on finding the queen while being
under attack by a lot of angry bees.
If you have a spare hive then you can move the original hive to a
different location leaving the second hive in its place.  All the flying
bees will go to the original site and you will be left with younger bees
and the queen in the old hive.  The younger bees are usually less
agressive and you will be able to concentrate more on finding the
queen.  If you want to use a second excluder you can do so further
reducing the amount of bees you have to examine.
If you have a second brood box it is a good idea to examine the frames
alternately from the outside working your way into the centre.  Each
frame after examination being placed into the spare box.  The queen will
usually be found in the centre.  Look for her on the frames with the
youngest brood or eggs.
Hope this is of some help.
--
Harry
Scotland
 
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