Oh, bother

[thorn]

One hive had six supers on. All but the lowest were full, but only the top three fully capped, so we put a clearer board under them on Thursday, and took them off yesterday. The clearer board hadn't worked well, so we had a lot of smoking, shaking and brushing to do.
When we came to extract from what had been the lowest of the three, there in a small arc at the bottom were eggs and tiny brood. We didn't see any sealed brood in the three supers below when we looked to see if they were ready to take, but I suppose we weren't looking for it and assumed at a glance that all that was capped was honey.
That colony had swarmed in June. The new queen was mated and laying well below the QX when we last inspected. Somehow she slipped through.
We can but hope that the queen was below the clearer board when we took the super. We'll find out next week.

 

[enrico]

One hive had six supers on. All but the lowest were full, but only the top three fully capped, so we put a clearer board under them on Thursday, and took them off yesterday. The clearer board hadn't worked well, so we had a lot of smoking, shaking and brushing to do.
When we came to extract from what had been the lowest of the three, there in a small arc at the bottom were eggs and tiny brood. We didn't see any sealed brood in the three supers below when we looked to see if they were ready to take, but I suppose we weren't looking for it and assumed at a glance that all that was capped was honey.
That colony had swarmed in June. The new queen was mated and laying well below the QX when we last inspected. Somehow she slipped through.
We can but hope that the queen was below the clearer board when we took the super. We'll find out next week.

Oh whoops, so easily done. I constantly see people take the qe off and lay it straight on top of the supers! No inspection and it needs turning over. Not saying that is what has happened, but it is worth remembering for any newbees

 

[blackcloud]

Damage to a qx doesn't even have to be visible to allow failure if the queen is on the petite side

 

[Blunt Spike]

Damage to a qx doesn't even have to be visible to allow failure if the queen is on the petite side

I found a queen 3/4 of the way through a QE. She looked at me and asked Does my bum look big in this?

 

[thorn]

We inspected today. The immediate good news was that there was a small patch of eggs in the uppermost of the supers left on, reassuring up us that when clearing the supers we took we did not damage or lose the queen. The next super down had no sign of eggs or brood. The super immediately above the qx had a few eggs. As we looked at them, an unmarked queen strolled across our view. We put her in a cage and lifted the qx. The brood box had no eggs or brood whatsoever.
Clearly we missed a swarm, a new queen was produced, she got mated, slipped through the qx and had just started laying when we came to take the honey.
Before we found her we were starting to think that the bees had a sense of humour and had taken some eggs up into the supers to wind us up.

 

[enrico]

We inspected today. The immediate good news was that there was a small patch of eggs in the uppermost of the supers left on, reassuring up us that when clearing the supers we took we did not damage or lose the queen. The next super down had no sign of eggs or brood. The super immediately above the qx had a few eggs. As we looked at them, an unmarked queen strolled across our view. We put her in a cage and lifted the qx. The brood box had no eggs or brood whatsoever.
Clearly we missed a swarm, a new queen was produced, she got mated, slipped through the qx and had just started laying when we came to take the honey.
Before we found her we were starting to think that the bees had a sense of humour and had taken some eggs up into the supers to wind us up.

Nice to read the update, thanks

 

[Sutty]

I had an established laying queen turn up with a load of brood in the supers - I was going to extract supers & found brood.
I have absolutely no clue how she got up there! Must have been something really stupid I did!

 

[jeff33]

When you say eggs and tiny brood, did you see any capped brood just to make sure she is mated and not a drone layer? She may have been stuck up there and not able to get out to mate?

 

[thorn]

When you say eggs and tiny brood, did you see any capped brood just to make sure she is mated and not a drone layer? She may have been stuck up there and not able to get out to mate?

Interesting point. Nothing capped as of two days ago.

 

[MJNT]

I’ve had the odd Queen do this. Bee inspector said he finds it happens (understandably) with slimmer queens they manage to go back a forth even if the qx is intact but usually settle below if there’s space in the end I can’t see they look slimmer but it could be by a tiny margin Not found it related to poor mating as shown by poor laying or getting ready to swarm which some say leads to a slimmer Queen.

 

[GuyNir]

I’m always suspicious when supers aren’t clearing properly.

 

[thorn]

I’m always suspicious when supers aren’t clearing properly.

I suspect they didn't want to leave the queen.
I'll be away for the next inspection. I'm looking forward to getting a message from my bee buddy telling me whether there is any sealed worker brood in the brood box.

 

[thorn]

My bee buddy reported in. The brood is worker brood. So all is well.