REGARDING           RE>Renegade Queen!
 
Mark Egloff writes:
> Late last week, when I was into my hives, I notice queen cells.
     Not a good thing for me, as I did not want splits OR swarms.
     However, at that time, I didn't have the equipment I needed
     with me to do much more than cut the cells I could find and
     button 'er up again.
 
    > Early this week, on Monday, a bright, clear day, with the
     temperatures in the mid to high 60s (Dayton, Ohio, USA{39.9N})
     I went into the hive to split it cull some of the brood and
     place it in another hive and super the hive with sections.
 
     >All went well, up to a point.
 
   >  I found the queen and ensured that she was settled into the
     hive (like a klutz I did not bring my push in cage with me) and
     began to remove, shake and relocate frames of brood, replacing
     them with open and empty drawn comb.  I got the hive body back
     together again and had picked up the sections to place them on
     top of the now single story hive, when I saw the queen walking
     around on top of the frames.  I stopped and waited, figuring
     that she would soon go back down into the hive, for I did not
     want to run the risk  of crushing her.  Well, she did not run
     down.  She took off  and flew.  I had my hands full and
     couldn't try to catch her.  I tracked her for several seconds
     then she blended into the rest of the hustle and bustle of
     bees.......
> How have you all dealt with this problem?  Will she come back
     home or do I need to break off the split which was targeted to
     become part of a two queen system, and place it on the hive?
 
I think, Mark, that the queen which took off must have been a virgin queen, or
else the hive was preparing to swarm and the old queen was prevented from
laying.  A laying queen would have been too heavy to fly.  Since you saw queen
cells, there is a good possibility that you didn't get them all cut out.  I
would be willing to bet that you still have a queen in the hive, either the
original or a new virgin queen.
I think you did the right thing by luring bees and hopefully the queen back by
putting out a frame of brood.  She would essentially be a lost bee, and would
just wander around until she spotted action or sensed the Nassonov  pheromone;
it is likely that then she would be drawn back home again.
 
Ted Fischer