I've had my first bees for about three weeks now, bought as a nucleus
     and transferred into a UK national hive. Thye are in a park in central
     London and, in spite of the atrocious weather we've been having, they
     seem to have been doing an excellent job of drawing out comb and
     filling it (not taking too much notice of the syrup I've given them).
 
     I opened up the hive on Friday and felt it about ready for a super, so
     put one on, with a queen excluder.
 
     Yestersday (Sunday) afternnon, I was at the hive, watching the bees
     come and go (as you do) in what seemed like the first decent day for
     ages. I looked at the ground and noticed my clipped queen wandering
     around next to my foot. I got her to crawl onto a leaf and put her
     back into the hive through the entrance, but I am perplexed and
     worried about how she got out of the hive. Does anyone have any
     thoughts?
 
     My guesses so far have been
 
     1. I clumsily knocked her off a frame when I opened the hive a few
     days ago and she's been on the ground ever since
 
     2. She went for a wander and just fell off the alighting board
 
     3. The bees tried to swarm (or even did swarm) and, because she's
     clipped, she just fell off the alighting board
 
     4. The other bees pushed her out of the hive for some reason
 
     A beekeeping friend has suggested I wait a couple of days then check
     the hive throroughly, making sure she is there and laying, and that
     there are no queen cells.
 
     Can anyone offer useful advice in addition and/or suggest any reasons
     why this situation might have arisen? I must say that as an extreme
     novice (most of the workers in my hive have been doing it for longer
     than me!) this event was somewhat scary.
 
     I also had a subsidiary question: when I looked at the hive on friday,
     there were a few bumblelbees hanging around underneath it and,
     seemingly, harassing those honey bees which were on their own (below
     the level of the hive entrance), but the bumblebees did not seem to be
     trying to get into the hive - any thoughts?
 
     Thanks a lot
 
     Leo
     A beekeeper of three weeks and one hive, but already addicted.