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
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