Something "scary" happened yesterday.

I went on an idle stroll though the hives with the dog
on Friday evening, and noticed that far fewer sorties
were being launched by one hive than other nearby hives.

So, I did a quick brood/larvae/egg/queencell check on
the colony in the cool of Saturday morning.

I did things the way I always do, stacking supers and brood
chambers on an overturned outer cover at roughly 45-degree
angles to each other, and so on.  The hive configuration
consisted of a Sundance pollen trap, 4 mediums for brood, and
a pair of Ross Round supers that are still unfinished due to
having more rain than sun since April.  The bees are NWCs, so 4
mediums >>IS<< a "compressed" brood chamber.

I found eggs, larvae, and brood in acceptable amounts, so my
concern was apparently misplaced. I rarely bother to look for
the queen herself. I just look at her handiwork, which is a
much quicker task.  This colony has a new spring queen, and
swarming time was (supposed to have been) over a while ago
here in Virginia, USA.

I reassembled the hive.

I glanced down, and saw the QUEEN climbing up the OUTSIDE
of the lowest brood chamber!!  She was alone.  She had
my color spot on her.  She was uninjured.

I tilted up the next hive body above the queen, and braced
the crack open with the handle of my bee brush.

She slowly climbed back in the hive.  One could almost hear
the royal grumbling in a tiny, tinny insect voice about having
to trudge around in full daylight without a single retainer or
lady in waiting to attend to her needs and keep the paparazzi and
autograph hounds away.

How she got onto the side of the lowest brood chamber, I do not
know.  Perhaps when I pulled one of the frames from it in my
counting of "frames of brood".  Perhaps when I removed one of the
other chambers up from the lowest.  Perhaps when I was putting them back.

But this was clearly a case of "beekeeper error". Had I not noticed
her, she would have been unable to get through the pollen trap and
back into the hive.  (Lloyd Spear's "Sundance" pollen traps are
well-designed, but there is simply no such thing as a pollen trap that
allows a queen's passage through the screens.)  She would have ended
up on the bottom board below the trap, where she would have been fed
and well cared-for, but unable to lay eggs until I noticed the problem.
Even then, would I have looked for the queen below the pollen trap on
the bottom board?  I doubt it.

I wish I could figure out what I did "wrong".

The odds against both "losing the queen", and also finding her right
under your nose?  I'd guess that they are about the same as being
hit by a meteorite.


                        jim (There is no "good luck" or "bad luck"
                       there is merely random chance and coincidence.
                       The universe is not just curved, it's completely
twisted.)

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