On the subject of moving eggs...

About the time one begins thinking they have an understanding of the basics of the hive, the bees throw a curve.  Here is the situation I encountered in the last week...

I created a queen bank and moved in six mated queens in JzBz cages.  When I finished finding five of the six queen a colony, the sixth became the queen I installed in the queen bank colony.  Forty-eight hours later I found that queen had been rejected with three capped queen cells in the accompanying comb.  I opened one of the queen cells to get an idea of the likely age.

Without making the story too long, I feel confident that the eggs used to create the queens cells must have been laid during the time the queens were quarantined.  I am confident the eggs were not in there when I made the queen bank.  I have no evidence of a rogue queen being left in the hive.

I am left wondering if the egg was borrowed from the hive next door.  (seems like just an exercise in humor)  Or the possibility that one of the caged queens (who had attendant bees in the cage) laid an agg that was handed off to a nurse bee outside the cage who then shepherded it into the comb nearby.  Or??

I don't think I have proved anything, but I have peeked my interest.  

Larry Krengel
Marengo, IL

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