>Hello BEE-L,
This simple method will work almost as well.  I have an old picnic
table that I keep behind my backyard colonies...about  20-25 feet
behind them in fact.   Unstack the supers to one side of the colony,
break the brood nest  from the bottom board, and carry the brood box
back to the table. Place the supers back on the bottom board.
Place an extra unused brood box three feet down the table . Now
extract the frames in order, examine for the queen, and let the guards
all ornery workers fly!   They immediately go back over to the hive
site and enter the supers, ready to defend them.    As observed in the
response post, most all  but the young bees and queen return.  If you
fail to find the queen in one time through, relook as you return the
frames to their proper box...  At that point there are many fewer bees
and almost no meanies, and there should be no problem finding the
queen.

I  have one other suggestion for  Tom, who says he just doesn't  have
the ability to find the queen.  Try this.  Build a four frame, stand
size Nuc containing all those ingredients for making an emergency
queen....eggs, day old larvae or a grafted Jzz..Bzz cell, pollen, and
honey- feed syrup.   Watch these cells develop, carefully observing
what happens and when.  They should cap at 4 1/2-5 days, and hatch on
day  10.5-12.. Out on the 11the day start looking in the nuc at least
daily, or even more....this doesn't have to be a true SWARM BOX.  you
want a good queen, but a great one is not necessary.  But go into
this nuc  as often as you can...You may not even need smoke; virgin
queens tend to be 'runny' or nervous, but grow rapidly especially
after they mate, but are usually quite easy to find, even just hatched
virgins,  with few bees and none mean.  Your problem, Tom, is that you
have not been to successful finding the queen, and  I recall when I
first became a beekeeper, my confidence level was not great either,
and this little trick taught me how to find queens.   I do add
however, I hope you are using Italians....these big yellow to Orange
babes are eyecatching!  Caucasians and other dark bees with coal black
queens are never as easy to spot....when I have had these,  I just
MARK 'EM...with a white liquid paper dot!   You can't beat this with a
stick!   And good luck!
----------
> From: Ernest Huber <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Eliminating the need to find the queen?
> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 13:18:12 -0400
>
. The standard advice in this case is to requeen, which
>means you MUST find the old queen.

>        About the only method that I have consistently had success
with
>under the above described situation is to MOVE THE HIVE a short
distance and
>then leave behind a nucleus colony to recapture the foragers
>        I would appreciate it if some of you other BEE-L members
would
>comment on my method, but it is the only method that I have found to
be a
>reasonable one for aggressive hives in a close-to-the-neighbors type
of
>situation.
>            Sincerely,    Ernie Huber
>