Queen AWOL 3 weeks after unite!

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Tomo

House Bee
Joined
Aug 8, 2012
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Location
Colchester
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
4
Hi. This is an observation and quest for a possible explanation rather than a what to do question:
Three weeks ago I united (paper method) my spare marked Q (2013) with a medium sized colony that had become queenless after the virgin Q failed to return after a mating flight (after AS). One week after uniting she was laying well, plenty of food and room, I saw her and all was well. The second week no sign of her, but young grubs (4-5 days) present no eggs, thought she may be on the inside of the BB. This week, no eggs, grubs etc just sealed worker brood and 6 sealed queen replacement cells. I'm sure she is not present, my guess is that they killed her for some reason or that I killed her by mistake which is unlikely as she was in the middle of a frame when I put her back last. There were no swarm cells previous to her going. I know the bees will sort themselves out just a shame as she was a good one and not much chance of a honey crop from this hive. Is this just one of those things? Thanks.
 
Queen replacement cells rather than supercedure surely as, she would have to be present for them to be supercedure? No to swarming, no swarm cells or cups or anything previous to her going. Same amount of bees present although I didn't actually count them! Cells now bang in the middle of two frames.
 
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Queen replacement cells rather than supercedure surely as, she would have to be present for them to be supercedure? No to swarming, no swarm cells or cups or anything previous to her going. Same amount of bees present although I didn't actually count them! Cells now bang in the middle of two frames.


So you mean Emergency QCs. Gotcha.
 
NO. I don't mean emergency Queen cells. These were not scrub queen cells.
 
What on earth is a 'scrub queen cell' ?
You have three types of queen cells:
swarm cells - usually made in profusion and can be made anywhere although usually at the bottom of the frame.Formed prior to the bees swarming
Supercedure cells - usually only a few - made towards the middle of the frame, sometimes two close together and often towards the edge of the brood - made whilst the queen is still present and new queen may co-exist with old queen for a while, although sometimes these cells may induce the bees to swarm
Emergency queen cells - made after the queen has died, disappeared, been removed, often formed from older larvae and found wherever there wassuitable brood. These will also get formed after the swarm has left and the remaining bees feel the loss of the queen.
Them's the three - take your pick.
but if, as you say
no swarm cells or cups or anything previous to her going
And you are certain of this then definitely emergency queen cells.
But then again you are also certain that they are
Queen replacement cells
They might have swarmed
 
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By scrub Q cells I mean the type that have been made from extending a worker cell, yes emergency QC. I was trying to say that these cells are what I would call the full size peanut variety and not one of the small 90 degree jobs. So do you think that she may have cleared off without any sign of preparation i.e. swarm cells and with the same amount of bees (as far as I can tell) still left in the hive?
PS I'm not after a definitive answer here, more interested in your experiences and thoughts. Thanks.
 

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