Queen on the landing board

[RARW]

Hi,

Just had a check on activity today during a break from work and spotted one of my queens on the landing board surrounded by 8 or so attendants. I watched for a while, she seemed lathargic and the the attendants seemed to be grooming her. I checked back 45 mins later and they were all still there. All other activity seems normal. Last inspection was 4 days ago and all seemed well with evidence of BIAS, she is a relatively new queen from early May but had seemed to be performing ok.
Any ideas what might be going on?
Wondering if i should pop her back in?

 

[Boston Bees]

I had this once. Attempting to push her back in the entrance resulted in workers appearing to attack her.

I would cage her, if possible. Then inspect fully to see what is what, just in case something weird has happened.

If the colony looks completely normal, no QCs etc, just missing a queen, then you could put her in a cage on the top of the frames and see what they do?

 

[GuyNir]

Q is being superseded? I’d leave them to it.

 

[RARW]

I had this once. Attempting to push her back in the entrance resulted in workers appearing to attack her.

I would cage her, if possible. Then inspect fully to see what is what, just in case something weird has happened.

If the colony looks completely normal, no QCs etc, just missing a queen, then you could put her in a cage on the top of the frames and see what they do?

Thats exactly what I ended up doing. Caged her with a few attendants and put her between 2 frames. They werent agressive towards her at all. I have a feeling she may be injured. I'll check back agian in a few days but i suspect they may be replacing her.

 

[Boston Bees]

Thats exactly what I ended up doing. Caged her with a few attendants and put her between 2 frames. They werent agressive towards her at all. I have a feeling she may be injured. I'll check back agian in a few days but i suspect they may be replacing her.

I suspect you are right. When it happened to me the queen could barely walk - I am not sure if the workers had attempted to kill her in the hive before she somehow got away, or if she had been damaged during an inspection, or had simply become ill for some reason.

 

[Finman]

Hi,

Any ideas what might be going on?
Wondering if i should pop her back in?
View attachment 26836

I bet that it is sick and workers were dragging her out. When I have put a queen onto the landing board, it has always went into the hive.

Queens do not have habit to hang on landing board.

 

[Monkey]

I had this a few days ago, from a hive that had previously swarmed. She was being mobbed, but they didn't seem to be harming her. There were drones landing at the time. I wondered if it was the new queen returning from a mating flight, although that was just a theory. Eventually, they all went in to the hive and calm was restored.

 

[RARW]

I had this a few days ago, from a hive that had previously swarmed. She was being mobbed, but they didn't seem to be harming her. There were drones landing at the time. I wondered if it was the new queen returning from a mating flight, although that was just a theory. Eventually, they all went in to the hive and calm was restored.

I intially wondered if she had been out for an additional mating flight too but it didnt feel right, no drones around and not the usual number of workers. Sadly I think she is injured, annoying as I have endless Queen issues this year in 2 colonies and things had finally settled down!

 

[Boston Bees]

I intially wondered if she had been out for an additional mating flight too but it didnt feel right, no drones around and not the usual number of workers. Sadly I think she is injured, annoying as I have endless Queen issues this year in 2 colonies and things had finally settled down!

The queen I had, which sounded in an identical condition, was found dead on the apiary floor a few hours later. So I suspect she is on her way out, or indeed is already out! Fun and games with bees ....

 

[IndiBee]

She was just inspecting the guards

 

[RARW]

She was just inspecting the guards

How I wish you are right!

 

[Hux70]

I inspected a colony on Tuesday. All good apart from the start of a QC with royal jelly which I left. Wednesday I decided I should have removed the cup so went in quickly and found the Q dead on the OMF with no wings!!

 

[F.F.Stung]

I inspected a colony on Tuesday. All good apart from the start of a QC with royal jelly which I left. Wednesday I decided I should have removed the cup so went in quickly and found the Q dead on the OMF with no wings!!

Let that be a lesson to me, and possibly to others. I may have removed the QC (oops) before deciding to check for queen and brood condition

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Had a similar thing last year - the queen was on the leg of the hive stand at about 8 pm with a few attendants. I assumed that the colony had swarmed (She was clipped and marked) so put her in a cage and into a queenless nuc to look after her. The next day I went through the double brood hive with very little space to lay and there were no queencells so I put her back in. She continued to lay after that. She is still heading up a colony this year and is doing fine.

 

[Debbie Emery]

Same happened to me today. Queen on landing board, circle of attendants surrounding her. She seemed very lethargic so I caged her and went in. We had inspected on 27th June to find just play cups and today, on 30th, all full QCs and mostly capped??? 3 days??? I made a split with a frame containing capped brood and a nice cell, lots of nurse bees, a frame of food and I added 1 to 1 sugar syrup. Only 1 cell at bottom of frame in main hive. The rest scattered at top and middle of frames. I cut out 2 nice ones and placed them on frames in 2 queenless hives and removed all others. Then popped her back in. If they really don't want her, they'll make that decision and they have a really nice capped cell to replace her if thats what they need. Not a lot else to do now but wait. Its cloudy, windy and quite chilly today. She was probably cold. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome with this hive, and the queenless hives provided with the donated cells.

 

[Ian123]

Same happened to me today. Queen on landing board, circle of attendants surrounding her. She seemed very lethargic so I caged her and went in. We had inspected on 27th June to find just play cups and today, on 30th, all full QCs and mostly capped??? 3 days??? I made a split with a frame containing capped brood and a nice cell, lots of nurse bees, a frame of food and I added 1 to 1 sugar syrup. Only 1 cell at bottom of frame in main hive. The rest scattered at top and middle of frames. I cut out 2 nice ones and placed them on frames in 2 queenless hives and removed all others. Then popped her back in. If they really don't want her, they'll make that decision and they have a really nice capped cell to replace her if thats what they need. Not a lot else to do now but wait. Its cloudy, windy and quite chilly today. She was probably cold. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome with this hive, and the queenless hives provided with the donated cells.

The normal result is finding her dead out the front in the next day or so.

 

[ericbeaumont]

doing fine

Not according to the bees. As Debbie found, QCs likely next time you check.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

A resurrection of an old thread!
Hi Eric, The odd thing with my colony was that the queen continued to lay in the hive for the rest of the season, with no queencells so why she went out for a walk is unknown to me.

 

[The Poot]

Same happened to me today. Queen on landing board, circle of attendants surrounding her. She seemed very lethargic so I caged her and went in. We had inspected on 27th June to find just play cups and today, on 30th, all full QCs and mostly capped??? 3 days??? I made a split with a frame containing capped brood and a nice cell, lots of nurse bees, a frame of food and I added 1 to 1 sugar syrup. Only 1 cell at bottom of frame in main hive. The rest scattered at top and middle of frames. I cut out 2 nice ones and placed them on frames in 2 queenless hives and removed all others. Then popped her back in. If they really don't want her, they'll make that decision and they have a really nice capped cell to replace her if thats what they need. Not a lot else to do now but wait. Its cloudy, windy and quite chilly today. She was probably cold. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome with this hive, and the queenless hives provided with the donated cells.

What was the outcome, Debbie?

 

[Debbie Emery]

Sorry. Been so busy. Yes, she made it... or at least they are now queenright. The cells I provided were chewed down. BIAS found last week. Couldnt find her to mark and left alone for a while. It must be her as there was nothing available to make another. I am puzzled as to what happened to her but all good in the end. Thanks for asking!!