Queen stuck in supers

[prana vallabha]

As title says a newly mated queen is stuck in supers , do I just have to shake all bees into brood box then back on with queen excluder

Many thanks in advance

 

[Excession]

Find her and just move her downstairs.
Keep it simple!

 

[nantmoel]

As title says a newly mated queen is stuck in supers , do I just have to shake all bees into brood box then back on with queen excluder

Many thanks in advance

There are a number of ways of dealing with this:

1. Place the brood box above the super and wait for her to start laying in the brood frames, then swap them over and put the excluder between them (preferred method)

2. If its a really strong hive, find her and coax her down onto the brood frames and then place the queen excluder in place. Any drones will be trapped in the super mind! These will fly off when you open the hive for inspection.

Hope this helps - I'm sure there will be other commenting on this.

 

[Finman]

.
To put a queen into the Place where it should be. Not a big thing.

 

[MuswellMetro]

i'll tell you when i go to sort out mine tomorrow~~~~~~~~tonight I just lifted the crown board to see if they needed another super.............ahhhh eggs in the top super box

not time to sort it tonight as i would need to search five supers and change the QE, so will find her tomorrow or early next week

 

[Finman]

i'll tell you when i go to sort out mine tomorrow~~~~~~~~tonight I just lifted the crown board to see if they needed another super.............ahhhh eggs in the top super box

Drop that Super under excluder. Save the eggs!!!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Just find her and put her back down.

Question might be: Will she stay down?

 

[Finman]

Just find her and put her back down.

Question might be: Will she stay down?

Wow. Save us from closer details.

-

 

[Finman]

not time to sort it tonight as i would need to search five supers and change the QE, so will find her tomorrow or early next week

Take excluder off and the queen will walk itself to the brood area.

 

[poshpikey]

I had this for the first time recently. I took the supers off and the queen excluder off, removed a few brood frames and shook the bees in from the supers. Take a spare empty super and then you can put the frames that you have shaken into this (on top of a spare roof/crownboard - so that you don't miss a small queen that scurries off into the undergrowth). Checked a week later and it had worked. Eggs in the brood chamber. Did find that they had built an emergency queen cell in the super - worth checking for.

 

[Beanwood]

How about just putting on a clearer board for a short period (6 hours ?) - bees in super much diminished - queen easy to spot and move?

 

[tudorcd]

Yes, the QE reduces the amount of pheromones so the workers make an emergency cell in the supers from available eggs.
I have only seen this when an unusual restructure occurs, such as setting up during queen rearing.

 

[Excession]

We are really making a meal out of this!

1. Find queen
2. CAREFULLY Pick up queen (fingers,cage, etc)
3. Put her in brood box

Easy!!!

 

[foghornleghorn]

I presume the op wouldn't be asking this if they were good at finding queens, so just shake the frames off and stick on an excluder. If you have a load of supers on do it over two days

 

[oliver90owner]

Excession,

I quite agree. But the question still remains as to whether she will stay there. No point at all infinding her and putting her downstairs if she goes back up again! There may be a reason for this occurrence and the initial failure.

Let me spell the alternatives out, to save anyone having to use their heads.

1. Beekeepert mistake.
2. Queen too small.
3. Faulty Q/E.

The reasons are few and the corre tions are simple for each.

1. Beekeeper to be more careful.
2. Requeen.
3.renew or repair Q/E.

Beanwood,

You ever tried to clear supers with brood? It does not work! It may help a bit, but not a lot and if the reason is number 2. along with a beekeeper who cannot easily find the queen, the effort is not worth it.

While finding the queen should be easy, shaking or brushing all bees from the frames is an alternative. But if either reason was 2. or 3., then the beekeeper is, frankly, wasting his time. Beekeeping at its simplest.