Dont trust a good looking queen

[Stiffy]

Was checking an out apiary yesterday and from my dates knew that a queen from one of my best was due to be laying any day. On checking the hive was pleased to see her calmly walking around and lots of frames with new eggs and some capped brood, all looking lovely. As I will be keeping this queen I thought I would quickly mark her to save me a hunt when the box gets to full strength. Picked her nice and gently, placed a glued marker on her back and popped her in a queen cage to let glue dry before putting her back.
As I put her back she didn't move and continued to lay lifeless, having had a coupe of queens 'play dead' in the past I thought, right leave her on top of frames until I have finished checking the other hives. Ten minutes later I went back and she was still lifeless..........oh buxxer I thought, I must have killed her!!! Feeling really despondent I took her out of the cage and placed her on top of a frames, the attendants quickly gathered around and the last I saw she was being taking down between some frames.

Now feeling really peeed off I thought about what I could do and on my way home formulated a plan to combine with another Nuc I had.
I closed the NUc up late last evening and collected this morning and with a couple of sheets of my local rag sped off to my out apiary.
On arrival I walked down with all my kit, spare brood box, sheets of newspaper and eventually the Nuc. 'Quick job' I thought, roof off, crown board off, paper on, empty brood box on and then transfer frames from Nuc, crown board back on and the roof....not forgetting to add spare frames to fill space in brood box.
Just as I was about to do this I thought ' quick check of front of hive to see if they have chucked her out yet, 'No, no signs', think I will check the frames..............well buxxer me there she was trotting around the frames all marked up and laying like a good un!!!!
Lesson for the weekend, don't trust any good looking queens they are sure to surprise you!
Delighted she was there though, even if I had just wasted the morning
S

 

[oliver90owner]

Had you not thought the colony would have developed emergency queen cells in the intervening period if she had been killed? Always simpler to check the obvious signs.

For any beginners reading: Marking any queen just as she starts laying is not best practice. Yes, nuc suppliers do it, but there are those that supply good nucs (with the queen's own brood emerged) and those that introduce an already marked queen to a recently thrown together collection of bees, brood and stores. Would you be able to tell the differences?

RAB

 

[Ben90]

I made a mistake marking a queen this year too... Accidentally pressed the marker pen too hard and indented her thorax a little. She stopped laying but the bees didn't supercede her. Thank goodness I had a spare and proven queen ready to go in a nuc!

 

[burren]

Exc stuff Stiffy. Good to hear. I dropped my newly emerged queen into long grass and couldnt find her. Wonder if she managed to climb up hive stand and back into her hive lol !!!!