Skinny Queen?

[MJBee]

First decent day since 20 March so had a look through all colonies. I found a problem with the very first one:-

It was given a super on 20 March, there were lots of bees in the super but it was very light, I pulled the center frame - it was solid sealed worker brood In all there was brood in one form or another in 9 of the 11 frames.!!!
I checked and double checked the slotted metal Qx it was not damaged or distorted so I either have a super slim Queen (she arrived with a Jul 08 swarm of unknown origin) OR did I carefully transfer the Queen into the super via the crown board?

Moral:- ALWAYS check the underside of the crown board and ensure the Queen is NOT on it.
Embarrassed Mike
PS The rest were fine.

 

[Poly Hive]

There is a risk of slim Queens and some are very slim by the way, and damn good queens they can be too, and if there is a tiny distortion then up they go.

However and this is a point worth remembering, queens have a major drive to go UP and this can be very useful at times.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

Mike did you have any brood in the bottom box ?

If you have you may well be running 2 queens.

 

[MJBee]

The only brood in the bottom box was sealed/emerging, so only one queen. Today I plan to go very carefully through every frame in the super to find the Queen or confirm that she has returned to the brood box which she probably has because there was very little laying space left in the super. The Qx i had on was a long slot metal one, this time I will try a short slot one.
This particular colony although hard working and docile are "runners", as soon as the hive is opened they rush about all over the place and this makes finding the Queen very difficult - I must try harder.
Regards Mike

 

[BKF Admin]

If its any consolation yesterday the weather here was overcast,I opened 5 hives and found zero queens.

Just one of those days.