Queen outside of the hive . I have never seen this before

[Bevbee]

i Found a marked queen and maybe 20 worker bees with her on the outside of the brood box. When I opened the brood box there were sealed swarm cells ( I found about 8-10) . I did the following:
1)put the queen in a clip in my pocket.
2)put new brood box on original site
3)went through original bb destroyed all but one QC . As I put my hive tool through the last QC out popped a Virgin . As I was not sure if I had damaged her I also left the one sealed QC
4) I then released the old queen onto the single frame of brood . She seemed a bit dozy and just tried to wander on the top of the frames . she Wasn’t acting like a queen at all.

Can anyone tell me if I behaved correctly ( not in letting the hive get to the point of sealed QCs , I know that is pretty bad beekeeping ) . Has anyone else found a queen outside the hive like this ? What does it mean ? She was marked but not clipped .

Thanks in advance

 

[pargyle]

I suspect that the queen was either getting ready to swarm or they had decided to swarm and she was a bit reluctant to fly ...

What I would have done is treated it as though I had found queen cells in the hive, found the queen and basically done an artificial swarm ... Pagden is the easiest.

It sounds as though you have gone some way towards this ... but it's not altogether clear between step 3 and Step 4 what you have done with the second box...

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Clipped queen tried to swarm...??

 

[Erichalfbee]

Clipped queen tried to swarm...??

OP says she is not clipped

 

[Boston Bees]

Not sure what you mean by "the single frame of brood", in point 4? Is the queen you found now back in the hive, with the virgin also running around and also a capped queen cell? If there are plenty of bees then that makes another swarm very likely.

It was a tough situation and in the past I have done something like what you did.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would have taken that queen you found outside the hive (most likely a failed swarm caused by her failure to fly) and put her in a nuc, with one frame of brood/bees (with no QCs on) from the hive and some food, and see what happens to her.

Then, having seen the virgin emerge, I would in hindsight have uncapped all remaining mature QCs to release all the virgins, squash any immature queen cells, close the parent hive up, and let the virgins fight it out!

 

[drex]

I suspect that the queen was either getting ready to swarm or they had decided to swarm and she was a bit reluctant to fly ...

What I would have done is treated it as though I had found queen cells in the hive, found the queen and basically done an artificial swarm ... Pagden is the easiest.

It sounds as though you have gone some way towards this ... but it's not altogether between step 3 and Step 4 what you have done with the second box...

From the OP, my interpretation is that she has done a Pagden, which is what I would have done. Well thought through Bevbee. We are all bad beekeeper at times.

 

[Bevbee]

Thank you all.

Apologies that in my panic my post was not at all clear . i had in fact done a pagden and put the old marked queen in a new bb with a single frame of brood ( no QCs) on the original site. The new location BB had a single sealed Qc left and a Virgin ( this might be a mistake but I could not be sure that I had not hurt Virgin as I put my hive tool through her sealed cell )
i seem to have done what most of you would have, which is a real relief . i have never seen an unclipped queen outside the hive like this and could think of no explanation So was worried that I had something really stupid returning her to the hive. A failed swarm has to be the explanation . Thank you again .

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thank you all.

Apologies that in my panic my post was not at all clear . i had in fact done a pagden and put the old marked queen in a new bb with a single frame of brood ( no QCs) on the original site. The new location BB had a single sealed Qc left and a Virgin ( this might be a mistake but I could not be sure that I had not hurt Virgin as I put my hive tool through her sealed cell )
i seem to have done what most of you would have, which is a real relief . i have never seen an unclipped queen outside the hive like this and could think of no explanation So was worried that I had something really stupid returning her to the hive. A failed swarm has to be the explanation . Thank you again .

I once had a colony that swarmed then returned and I found the queen in the ground. I nuc’d her and the bees made supersedure cells straight away so I squashed her and reunited the bees

 

[pargyle]

Thank you all.

Apologies that in my panic my post was not at all clear . i had in fact done a pagden and put the old marked queen in a new bb with a single frame of brood ( no QCs) on the original site. The new location BB had a single sealed Qc left and a Virgin ( this might be a mistake but I could not be sure that I had not hurt Virgin as I put my hive tool through her sealed cell )
i seem to have done what most of you would have, which is a real relief . i have never seen an unclipped queen outside the hive like this and could think of no explanation So was worried that I had something really stupid returning her to the hive. A failed swarm has to be the explanation . Thank you again .

You got there even if you weren't sure why ... well done. The little beggars do their level best to confuse us sometimes and it's not always obvious what has happened. You now have options and with a bit luck any desire they had to swarm will have been alleviated.