I returned to one of my trapping jobs to find a pile of bees in the gutter
of the house between the bee escape and the bait hive. To my surprise there
was a queen in the pile. I have always assumed that this was a swarming
attempt and not the queen trying to find the missing foragers.... but I
suppose it is possible. I have no way of knowing if another queen hatched
out in the wall of the house and died there.
Larry Krengel
Marengo, IL
I've never observed that the queen ever comes out. Can anyone
> truly verify that the queen will actually leave the dwindling, starving
> cluster in the cavity, and transverse the distance from the combs to the
> entrance, out the funnel, and into a nuc? Seems highly unlikely to me.
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