A strange thing happened recently. I wanted to
requeen a colony so I squished the old queen.
The MARKED queen arrived but because of
alternating rain and extremely HOT weather, I
didn't put the new queen in for 5 or 6 days.
A week after that, I went to look at the colony
and there was a lot of eggs, but I found an
UNMARKED queen. I doubt the bees could
have taken off the marking material so soon.
I also found two opened swarm cells that I must
have missed in an earlier inspection. There must
have been a swarm, but did the new queen leave
with the swarm? Did the colony swarm before I
introduced the new queen and did the virgin swarm
queen kill the introduced queen? I captured this
queen and ordered another queen and installed it
today but I am wondering what happened.
Any Ideas?
Ian Watson