Antipodes
Queen Bee
If it makes you feel better, I lost one today in an out apiary to starvation. Or most of them anyhow. Just a few days too late I guess. Many dead, some were still barely alive with heads in cells, some very lethargic on the floor and a few similarly torpid on the frames....and the expensive queen...alive but barely!..unfortunately for my bees, (on brood and a half), was that the plentiful supply was in the next hive along.
Great...she is alive, but seeing as it was only 10 degrees, I had better get her out and warm her up quick smart. Out of my pocket came the little queen cage for such emergencies...but no candy or ear plugs to plug the hole. Oh well, get her in the cage anyhow, she can barely move, and so into the pocket of my trousers inside the bee suit. Done. Now to carry the hive of dead and dying bees up the steep hill to get them home to save some and deal with them. Many stops up the hill, but got to the vehicle and in went the hive and the sun would warm them up in there. Now to get that queen out. You guessed it. Oh no! Not in the cage. Gingerly pulled my pocket inside out...not there either. Ok, she will be down the leg of my suit, around the ankle. Careful, careful...nope, not there either. Nor in the other leg, nor in the rest of the suit. Not in the wellies, not on the ground....searched on the side of the road next to the vehicle on hands and knees for a good five minutes. Gone.
Suit back on and back down to the apiary to continue checking the other hives for stores. More searching on the ground there just in case. Half an hour later , after lots of very ripe self deprecatory language, I was back at the vehicle. Off with the bee suit veil and the beanie, and... plop. Landing on the ground in front of me was the queen! Alive and undamaged. Into the hive this time.
Got them home and then set off a robbing frenzy with my messy attempts to revive them with sugar syrup. Closed it all up and left them. About an hour later I went to check if the robbing had stopped, and there, on the syrup bottle was the queen! How did she get out?? This time I picked her up, brought her inside and into another queen cage, this time plugging the end. Next thing, she was crawling around the outside of the cage! Ok, wooden plug missing from one end of the cage....
More fun and games tomorrow if I can keep her alive overnight....don't like my chances