[log in to unmask] wrote,
> The queen then quickly escaped and took flight.
> I was really upset watching her fly away...
> After waiting a few days ... I discovered that
> the marked queen had returned to the hive and
> appears to be very healthy. I guess she absoloutly
> had to mate upon being released.

The purchased queen returned to the hive, probably while you were retrieving
the queen cells from the other hive.  Unless you specifically ordered a
virgin queen, she was already mated when she arrived and would not fly off
to mate again as you wrote.  If a queen flies off while a beekeepers errs in
introduction (been there, done that), she really has nowhere to go and will
attempt to enter a hive.  I have seen cases where she enters the hive one is
trying to requeen and I have seen cases where she enters a different hive
(one that was queenright and certain death).  The best advise if a queen
takes flight during a botched introduction is to leave the hive open for a
few (say 5) minutes and hope she returns, then quietly close things up and
come back in a few days to see how things developed.  Worst case is the
queen will be lost, at which time you can then introduce cells or eggs from
a different colony to tide the hive over.  If you are concerned about the
lineage of the new queen, providing eggs will tide the hive over while you
order and await a new queen, which can be introduced when she arrives after
tearing down any cells the bees may start from the interduced frame that had
the eggs.

Aaron Morris - thinking l'il Bo Peep!

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