Flighty young Queen

[boywonder]

Hi all... Now, I am not an overly meddlesome beekeeper, and I usually get my timings etc... right, but yesterday, my intuition failed me, and a nuc I opened up to check if there was a new, laying Queen had no eggs/brood, but ......

.... hey ... there is/was a small, cute (presumably/possibly) virgin Queen (implying I was a little early in checking the box) wandering around the frame of polished cells. Great, until ...

... resolving to put the frame gently back in situ, she only went and bloody flew off !!!

I was that surprised (I've never had a Queen fly off the frame before), that I did not track her flight, but also did not happen to see her return to the box (either the top of the open nuc or the entrance).

Am I correct to think she will return (/will have returned) ? Or might I have spooked her and lost her ?

My trusty companion (my teenage son) asked me if there was a chance she had shot off on her mating flight, but I think I was right in saying that is extremely unlikely - especially as she appeared to leave unaccompanied.

Your advice / experience is sought, as I would like to know what may have occurred there.

Either way, there's not a lot I can do, so my plan is to leave well alone, and check back in in about 3 weeks time.

Cheers

Sent from my Google Pixelbook using Tapatalk

 

[Antipodes]

Hi Boywonder, they seem to be flighty when young. I've had one fly off the frame upon inspecting it, but I followed her to the landing spot on the ground near the hive and put her back in. She was a laying queen too, but still young. I've seen young freshly emerged queens crawl around the face of a hive and then fly off to come back a few seconds later. That was a situation where there were a few virgin queens running around in a split. That is the limit of my experience with young queens flying (other than on a mating flight).

 

[Millet]

I had the same happen on two occasions last year..the first one was a virgin she took flight and i knocked her back into the hive only for her to do the same again and disappear into the sun..she was back in the hive when i inspected a couple of days later..the second one was a tiny unmated drone layer that i spotted on a frame..i walked 15yards away from the hive she was from so i could catch her and dispatch her..however the little devil had flown of the frame without me seeing..i found her back in the original hive a couple of hours later..apparently young Queens take orientation flights before they go of to get mated..so if your young Queen has done that you have a good chance of her returning..

 

[drex]

Has happened to me a couple of times and I just closed up. Next day they were back home. Have read on here that you should stick near the hive for a while as you will be a landmark for her, but that was after I had experienced this.