Requeening advice needed

[dolbz]

I've just had the most enjoyable afternoon finding a queen who did not want to be found at all. Eventually I find her and get her into a queen clip where she would be safe while I put the hive back together. When I go back to 'deal' with her permanently I try to get her out of the queen clip and she takes the tiny window of opportunity to fly away.

Now I have a hive in an unknown state... Is she likely to have got back into the hive (only a few feet away from where she escaped)? I spent a long time inspecting the grass nearby without any luck.

My first thought is to make a nuc up with emerging brood from the hive I was going to requeen. This should give me time to figure out the state of the old hive and it feels like the quickest and safest way to introduce my new queen (who is at home and presumably can't be kept in her travel cage for too long?). Does that sound like a good plan? Any other ideas?

 

[Swarm]

She will more than likely be in there next time you look.

 

[enrico]

I did exactly the same last month. She was a nasty queen. I had already combined them with a nice queen before I found her missing. I waited half an hour to see if she would return. Then I took the hive to bits again incase she had already returned. I gave up as they were so angry. Next inspection, nice queen still in situ, nasty queen nowhere to be seen. Keep your fingers crossed!
Moral..... As JBM said .... Kill the bitch don't put her in a queen clip!
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

Or kill the queen with your queen clip

 

[B+.]

She will more than likely be in there next time you look.

Funnily enough, I did the same thing a couple of days ago.
I wanted to check that some virgins I had introduced had been accepted. One took it into her mind to fly up into the sky. This had happened before and I've learned that the best thing to do is close up the nuc and sit waiting for her to return (my presence is part of the scene that she will recognize if/when she returns).
I watched as a blue marked queen returned, hovered around the entrance, backed off, then came back again. She did this several times before she went inside. I just sat still and waited. I only know that she went back in because she was marked. If the queen isn't marked, you'd be lucky to spot her.

As for the OPs question, so long as the hive contains eggs/larvae, they will attempt to make a replacement if they suddenly find themselves queenless. If she did return, they will carry on as normal. You will find the answer the next time you inspect them.
With an aggressive colony, I would tend to leave it 9 days so they became hopelessly queenless. Then destroy EVERY queen cell and give them a frame of eggs/larvae from a nicer colony to raise a replacement from (or, preferably, another queen).

 

[dolbz]

Today was round two of this saga. Queen was located back at home. Found her much quicker which is just as well as they were really horrible this time. I dropped the new queen in later on in the afternoon and by this point the hive was as bad as any I’ve seen. Hundreds all over my veil and lots of aggression. Smoke hardly making a difference.

So fingers crossed she’s accepted now to make all that worthwhile!

 

[tonyofarr]

I lost a queen I really wanted to keep in April. I did not clip or mark her last year and when I found her this year I took my eyes off her to find my posca pen and she must have fallen off the frame. I spent ages hunting for her and then kicked myself all the way home.