Queen Bee

[nfir33]

Hi, I have a drone laying queen.
I bought a new queen to replace her and went to replace her this morning.
I saw her and went to do the deed , but she escaped and ended up on the outside of the hive.
I tried to get her from there but she flew off and since then (5 hours ago) I have not been able to find her in the hive.
She is a queen from a swarm I caught and since I caught the swarm, I have moved the hive.
She will never have flown from the hives current location.
I'm thinking it will be very unlikely that she will find her way back unless she went right back into the hive and I have missed her (I have scoured the frames several times with nothing showing so far)
Your thoughts would be much appreciated

 

[Sutty]

I'd have put the new queen straight in (caged) & hoped for the best rather than leaving them queenless. Probably best to do it now rather than wait but someone more experienced at introduction will probably be along shortly. You want them to avoid raising EQCs & may already be late.

 

[Wilco]

If there may be a queen in there and you've got a mated queen in a cage I'd be tempted to wait 3 days, see if there are eggs then either:

1. If no eggs, knock down any queen cells being made and introduce the queen in the cage
2. If eggs, find the DLQ, gatepost her then introduce the queen in the cage.