Emerging Queen Attacked

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Ideas Please! As I inspected my girls I saw a queen with her head free of the cell attended or was it attacked by workers. I watched for about thirty seconds. The workers did not seem to be helping her out of the cell but keeping her in. I knocked off the remaining queen cell thinking they may be waiting for the other queen and then swarm or have them fight it out, and left them in peace. I inspected again yesterday. Unable to find a queen I turned up the frame on which the emerging queen had been and found her in situe with a hole in her head. A little sealed brood are left, no sign of any other queen cells or new brood.
OK I may have missed an unmarked queen.
I may have missed a well hidden QC. but not likely.
Have I caused a crisis by inspecting at this crucial moment?
Had anyone else had a similar experience and if so what was the outcome.

 

[For want of a better word]

We had 30 queen cells in a q- cell rearing colony that had sealed and ready for the incubator ripped open and the baby queens dismembered.

Possibly the choice of cell rearing bees.. a *uck*ast / Ligurian hybrid... other cell rearing colonies seem to be OK

Weather? Cosmic Rays ? Sun sor activity... wrong phase of mood... who knows????

 

[enrico]

Nothing you did is likely to be the cause..... I would make myself feel better by saying that the bees obviously knew something that you didn't and decided to kill her. Nature does that!
Sorry for your loss!
E

 

[Lorenz]

Sometimes when there is already an existing old or newly emerged queen I see the bees will sit on the lid of the other ripe QCs 'holding in the queen'. When beekeeper opens hive, the bees keeping the queens in are disrupted and sometimes many virgins emerge at the same time.

 

[Skyhook]

Not generally considered a good idea to inspect when virgins are emerging/ in residence.


.

 

[DanBee]

We had 30 queen cells in a q- cell rearing colony that had sealed and ready for the incubator ripped open and the baby queens dismembered.

Possibly the choice of cell rearing bees.. a *uck*ast / Ligurian hybrid... other cell rearing colonies seem to be OK

Weather? Cosmic Rays ? Sun sor activity... wrong phase of mood... who knows????

More like an emerged queen already, or the colony was not as queenless as you thought? Much more likely to be due to condition of colony affecting acceptance than some odd genetic trait. Early emergence may come from poor choice of old grafting material - once one is out, she & the workers tear down the rest.

For the OP's question, Lorenz hit it with emerging queens being delayed by workers, but those workers are easily distracted if the beekeeper happens to come inspecting. If you see this, and have matchboxes or queen cages to hand, it can be a source of a number of queens to use elsewhere. Of course, whether they are desirable or not depends on the parent colony and why it is producing queens in quantity...

 

[For want of a better word]

More like an emerged queen already, or the colony was not as queenless as you thought? Much more likely to be due to condition of colony affecting acceptance than some odd genetic trait. Early emergence may come from poor choice of old grafting material - once one is out, she & the workers tear down the rest.

Thanks Danbee...
seem odd but another run in another q- rearing colony has "knocked down" two or three queen cells, and built loads of brace comb around the others!

Larvae were taken via a Jenter/Nicot cage ... as I have never had much success with grafting... eyesight too dim and hands far to shaky!

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

The colony was increasing rapidly and also making queen cells though the hive was nowhere near full. I removed the queen(white) and bees on her frame with brood took two frames of food with her to start a new colony and put in new brood frames for them to work with. they made more queen larvae I removed them not wanting to lose my colony and potential honey. Two queen cells were capped as far as I could see. I took off the remaining capped cell when the queen was trying to emerge. I think that was possibly a mistake. I blow on the bees to get them to move so I can see what is happening on the frames. Do you think that I should leave them in peace for a couple of weeks then have another look. I could reunite later if there is nothing happening but it seems a bit early to decide to do that.