Disappearing brood, returning swarm, queen emerges backwards

[Noobee]

Something I cannot explain happened.

Timed perfectly with my inspection two weeks ago, the ladies swarmed. landed nearby, where I boxed them and left the box to catch stragglers.

30minutes later they had disappeared completely, or so it seemed. There was a massive cluster underneath the original hive (which I had quickly inspected and found healthy QCs as expected).

Then this week:
No brood anywhere (there were grubs of all sizes last week).
A QC with the tip top ripped off but then sealed back up - went to destroy it and found a queen inthere backwards - her bum was facing out!

any ideas?

 

[oliver90owner]

Hi, you are a definitely a noobee.

Everything may be perfectly normal.

You may find brood underneath your hive in the cluster if it is still there.

If there are queen cells in the hive, there would not be any open brood after a week if the queen had left with a swarm.

The bee in the opened queen cell is almost certainly a worker (in there cleaning it out and got trapped).

You have a virgin queen in residence so they need leaving alone for her to mate and come into lay, before there will be further larvae in the hive.

As far as the cluster under the hive is concerned, it could have been the swarm returning because they had lost the queen.

You need to read a bee book or go on a course where all these things are clearly explained.

You needed to to know whether your queen was clipped or not. That may help to explain things, possibly.

Long distance guessing here but likely not far off.

RAB

 

[drstitson]

"No brood anywhere (there were grubs of all sizes last week)."

you say last week - exactly how many days between inspection as any larvae a week ago should still be present as capped brood.