Queen Playing Dead

[Beedogg]

I'd heard about this, but not seen it. However...
Today I found the queen in a swarm I'd taken a couple of weeks back. I caught her as gently as I could between two fingers and marked her. Then I put her back on the frame and she just lay on her back, dead. I was horrified.

I watched for a while (three or four minutes) as the bees fussed around her but she was quite immobile. So I gently placed her on top of one of the frames and closed up the hive.

I went back in after I'd finished with the other hives and there she was, running about happily - and now easy to spot. Sneaky little critter...

 

[Sutty]

Bet you're glad you'd already heard of it!

 

[alancooper]

It happened to one of my Qs yesterday. I had searched for and found a mated Q in a nuc. She was very fast on the frame and I trapped in Q marking cage with some workers. When the workers emerged from the cage the Q had curled up seemingly “as dead as a door nail”. Five minutes later I noticed her moving slightly and she slowly recovered. When I opened the cage and laid it over the hive frames to return her, she slowed down again and it was several minutes more before she moved down between the frames.