Help: Queen bee found inside house

[Macdee]

Hi there

I need some help.

I have just found a queen bee in a nuc that i brought inside a couple of days ago.
I had been using it to transport frames to and from the hives in the field.

What should I do with her ?

She might be out of one of my hives, but it will be hard to check each hive to see if the queen is NOT there.

Should I just take her down to the apiary tomorrow and put her in the middle of all the hives and stand back ? Would she then go back to the hive that she knows ?

thanks for the help

Al

 

[Anduril]

Hi there

I need some help.

I have just found a queen bee in a nuc that i brought inside a couple of days ago.
I had been using it to transport frames to and from the hives in the field.

What should I do with her ?

She might be out of one of my hives, but it will be hard to check each hive to see if the queen is NOT there.

Should I just take her down to the apiary tomorrow and put her in the middle of all the hives and stand back ? Would she then go back to the hive that she knows ?

thanks for the help

Al

How many hives have you got?
If you open up the hives the one, if it is the only one with queen cells being drawn, will be the hive missing a queen. However, the other scenario will be supersedure this time of year. There may have been 2 queens in a hive.
Upto 4 to 5 days if queen cells are being produced knock them down and add the queen, in a cage for security. If you were to release the queen at the site, there is no guarantee that she will fly back to the correct hive.

 

[Macdee]

Hi
I have 4 hives, and yes it could be be a supersedure queen

Why wouldn't she find her way back to her hive ?

Also if I need to wait 4 days, how do I keep her alive outside of any hive ?

Al

 

[Anduril]

Hi
I have 4 hives, and yes it could be be a supersedure queen

Why wouldn't she find her way back to her hive ?

Also if I need to wait 4 days, how do I keep her alive outside of any hive ?

Al

You indicated a couple of days, that she has been out of the hive. Go back in tomorrow and check and reintroduce, more than likely it will be the last hive you used the nuc with. Any longer and the queen will die.
The queen may not find her way back, if she hasn't been on a mating flight i.e. Queen came with a nuc. She may try and get in another hive and either be accepted or despatched.

 

[Beefriendly]

Open up your hives, the one with agitated roaring bees is missing their queen.
Add queen.

 

[Macdee]

Would that still be true if it is a supercedure queen that was out on a mating flight ?

 

[Ian123]

Why would it be a supercedure just check your hives keep it simple. The queen was on 1 of those frames and just dropped of in all likelihood. Hurry though am surprised she’s made it this long without attendants and I would pop her in a cage when you put her back in.

 

[For want of a better word]

Was she alone in the nuc or did she have workers in with her?
Was she on a frame or just loose on her own in the bottom?
If you were checking you colonies why were you taking frames out into a nuc... to look for the queen??

 

[Anduril]

Was she alone in the nuc or did she have workers in with her?
Was she on a frame or just loose on her own in the bottom?
If you were checking you colonies why were you taking frames out into a nuc... to look for the queen??

Some people use nucs instead of frame rests!

 

[Macdee]

She had one bee with her; maybe she is just a big/ long worker.

Right found a hive that seemed to be roaring and had three small queen cells / cups forming.
Have put her in there; strangely there was a dead queen on the landing board of that hive.
Not seen that before

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Some people use nucs instead of frame rests!

people use frame rests!!?

 

[For want of a better word]

people use frame rests!!?

and shake all the bees into hive before taking frame to one side... otherwise a possibility of queen going awol

 

[Ian123]

Post a pic of the dead queen or both

 

[Macdee]

Queen from house


Dead Queen

 

[Antipodes]

Hi Macdee,

the first photo looks to me to be two worker bees...

 

[XYZ]

Queen from house


Dead Queen

They're both workers. Is it because they're different colours that you think one is a queen?

 

[Ian123]

First photo 2 workers second photo is queen.

 

[Anduril]

people use frame rests!!?

Yes and make adaptations to a hive stand to rest one against the hive or protrusions to rest on the lugs or if you are fortunate or posh you have an assistant to hold it for you

 

[Erichalfbee]

Queen from house


Dead Queen

All the bees in the pictures have corbiculae and a hairy thorax so they are all workers
Queens have no corbiculae and a hairless thorax with a cleft running fore/aft