Finding the Pretender

[Spikedog]

Two colonies Q- who ignore Test egg frames – Think they are Q+ … what is the best method of finding the misfit (Double brood and supers)?

 

[B+.]

Two colonies Q- who ignore Test egg frames – Think they are Q+ … what is the best method of finding the misfit (Double brood and supers)?

pass them through a good queen excluder

 

[Obee1]

Two colonies Q- who ignore Test egg frames – Think they are Q+ … what is the best method of finding the misfit (Double brood and supers)?

As B+ pass them through a QE - when I had a really hard to find queen I moved the hive about 10 feet away and left a nuc in the original spot to catch the flyers.
Then shook the bees - every one - into an empty bb. I did look for the queen as I shook them but think it quicker to just shake em. Add two brood frames in the centre, paired together. QE on. Rest of frames in the now bee less second bb on top. Then your super. Add CB and roof. Leave a fair few hours or over night. Next day carefully deconstruct the hive - and there between those two brood frames under the QE will be your queen. Most of the bees will be upstairs with the rest of the brood.
A huge faff to do it all - but it works!

 

[Motobiman]

I have one Q who is a real hider and it took me four seperate inspections going back and forth through the frames to find her.

Even now she is marked she is hard to find and the longer I search the less likely I am to spot her

What I have found and i can only surmise it is something to do with the way our eyes work is it's much easier to find her if it's the only aim and early on in the inspection and consequently I start where she is most likely to be rather than always from one end.

I remove the dummy board and stores frames from one side of the hive and brush the bees down, slide the lot of frames half into the gap and remove the stores frames from the other end brushing the bees down.

I then pair up the brood frames and spend a few minutes cleaning up.

Then I check on the inside faces of the paired frames first.

Generally I can spot her this way but I am more keen on seeing BIAS.

 

[bpmurray]

pass them through a good queen excluder

I had a queen a couple of years ago and could not find her. I left it over the winter and still couldn't find her. Eventually I tried this last august, well over a year after she started, and she was sitting nicely on top of the QE. However, she was really small so I don't know how she didn't go through.

She's still laying well on her third season, so I'm assuming she'll have to go soon (if the bees don't decide before I do).

 

[busybee53]

Yes you can catch a queen by making all the bees go through an excluder and leaving the queen on the other side. However I once had a very small queen who could get through an excluder.

To find her I checked where the eggs were. Luckily in the brood box. Then I put pairs of brood frames in separate cardboard boxes. After half and hour one of the boxes of bees sounded calmer than the others. I put the bees in all the other boxes back in the hive.

Then I spread the calm bees (off the frames) between all the boxes. There were very few bees in each box now so I was able to see if they seemed to be clustering.

In the corner of one box there was about a dozen bees. In the middle was the very small queen. Once caught she was replaced with a nice queen who did not keep nipping back and forth through the excluder.

 

[Spikedog]

Many thanks for the replies - very helpful. Going to sit a week to see if a late developer (has happened this season) and if not its the rough treatment through a Qx prior to any more Q introductions (some killed). P

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

its the rough treatment through a Qx

It need not be that rough. Remember bees go UP better than down. So: solid base, empty box; brush / shake bees in (use smoke to keep them down); check bare frames for HM (!) and leave in original box over QE while you have a cup of tea or work on other colonies.