I wintered over an observation hive at my house and brought it back to the shop where we sell bee supplies about 3 weeks ago. This OB hive has about 4 cups of Italian bees in it and they have capped brood so I know the queen was laying. Yesterday when inspecting some hives the queen from the OB hive was found dead in front of another hive. I know it was the OB queen because she was marked and none of our other queens are marked. I had just been watching the OB hive the day before and saw the queen and every thing seemed normal. When I found the marked queen on the ground I went right into the shop and checked the OB hive and it is queenless. The hive she was in front of is about 100 yards away from the building the OB hive is in.  Laying next the queen from the OB hive was another dead queen which was black, we have one hive of black bees and they are about 50 yards away from the hive I found these queens in front of. The hive these queens where in front of are not black bees so I assume it is not their queen but I will open them up in a couple of days to see. The black bees are really small and this black queen was half the size of the Italian. So I wonder what went on to give us two dead queens in front of a hive that neither belonged to. They had to have been fighting.  Why would either of these queens be out of the hive? Or if the queens had died and where lugged off why drop them in front of another hive? The OB hive has no queen cells so it was not her leaving in a small swam. 

I thought I would share this bee mystery story with you. I am having a heck of a time trying to find a few queens for replacements, I called around looking for a dozen queens and every one says in June or July. 

Karen Kimball
Maine

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