Never seen the queen.

[Levitt53]

I was given a swarm two months ago to the day. The guy who gave it to me marked the queen when I asked him to. I've done 7 inspections now and have never seen the queen. I know not to worry each time and there are eggs and larvae and now drone brood so they are doing well but I'm surprised to still never have seen the queen. I've done some inspections with my adult boys who haven't seen her either. Is this usual and she's very shy or am I just a bit rubbish at spotting her?

 

[drex]

It does take some time to " get your eye in" when they are not marked. Marks sometimes wear off , queens may change (supersedure) and some queens are good at hiding. I never worry about seeing her, unless I actually need to find her, just recent evidence of her. If you want to find her, use as little smoke as possible. Look at the combs where you would expect to find her I.e where there are fresh eggs. I let my eyes go a little out of focus and look for disturbance on the comb, rather than focus sing in on a specific bee. Lots of suggestions in other threads.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Another thing to get into the habit of doing is looking at the dark face of the frame you lift first but before that have a quick look at the frame facing you inside the box. Lots of people say....."The queen is always on the last frame"
She's not but she nips round the frame as soon as it is exposed till she gets to the end of the box and there is nowhere else to go save the floor.

 

[Davelin]

I had a new queen through supersedure in one hive last August.

I finally spotted her last week!

 

[Motobiman]

I have one hive that I have inspected 6 times now and have BIAS and never seen her.

The other 4 hives I have found and marked.

It's a mystery to me how some can hide away so effectively.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A good queen won't stop what she's doing just because you're inspecting. if a queen is laying an egg - most of her body will be inside the cell so she will be easy to miss amongst a cluster of workers.
Another thing that doesn't help is 'coloured dot syndrome' you tend to look for a coloured spot rather than the queen, a lot of the time it's her backside you'll see first, if you're looking for a blob of paint you'll miss it.

 

[Motobiman]

Must admit it's often the way she moves attracts my eye to her.

 

[Levitt53]

Thanks for the tips. Not just me obviously. It would be nice to see her but I'm happy they're are doing well.

 

[bpmurray]

One of my hives is really, really strong on 3 supers & loads of bees. I inspected today and there are eight frames of BIAS almost out to the edges of the frame, but no sign of HRH. She's not marked or clipped - she's the result of a split in early May and I have never seen her. I've tried pairs of frames and other techniques, but she's sneaky. Her mother was the same - took me 18 months to finally find her and mark & clip. Apart from the slusive behaviour, she and her mother are fabulous layers - the mother is in year 3 this year and I saw a single QC today so I suspect she's heading for retirement.

So, just because you can't see her, that's not a problem: she'll eventually turn up.