I have had a queen in full lay fly. At the time, our Association had an apiary at the College in Stratford-upon-Avon and I had an apiary in a garden about 200 yards away over two rows of houses. The Association had one very bad tempered colony and as I was planning to requeen one of my colonies I thought that it might be a good idea to use the old queen (in her second year) to requeen the Association colony. I found the queen, reached for a cage, looked back - and she was not on the comb. I went through the colony again and found her - she had flown from the face of the comb back into the colony. I made sure that I caged her the second time and went round to the Association site. At this point I decided that it might be a good idea to clip and mark her so, working on the rear parcel shelf of the car, I opened her cage. She immediately ran out and took to the air, circling slowly around with her heavy abdomen hanging down. I watched her head off over the houses in the direction of her home! I returned to my apiary, went through the hive again and, sure enough, there she was back in her original hive. I caught her again, clipped and marked her in the car - with the windows shut! - and introduced her to the Association hive where she spent the rest of her days. I find it incredible that a queen that had been in full lay for over a year, and presumably had not flown since her mating flight (?), was able to remember the surrounding land and navigate back to her hive. This happened in my early days of beekeeping and was a useful lesson, although I had a similar incident with a young queen that I had raised (she had laid up a few frames in the mating nuc) and was planning to introduce into one of my hives. In this case I took her to the new apiary where she managed to escape. I watched her fly around and then disappear from sight. However, I sat and watched and waited and after about 15 minutes she reappeared and then pitched on some weeds. I quickly threw a veil over her and was then able to catch her. Peter Edwards [log in to unmask] :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::