Surefire way of finding a queen

[SunnyRaes]

You may recall that we had a few swarms (artificial and unplanned) a couple of weeks ago and we've left them pretty much alone since (mainly due to the weather!) Of the 3 hives we opened today, we could only find a queen in 1 (ironically in the cast swarm from one of the other 2 hives). That isn't to say there is no queen in the other 2, however we just couldn't find them.

It should be said that even at the best of times when there was a known queen, the bees were very skittish and ran around a lot, and nothing appears to have changed in thse 2 colonies. Both of these colonies are very full, so trying to spot even a queen in several layers deep of bees on the middle frames is going to be tricky

We tried splitting one of the hives across a neuc box but there didn't appear to be any significant difference in temperement.

The other hive was just aggressive (my first sting - awwww! Right in the neck...) so we gave up on trying anything more on that hive other than a once-over.

The hive with the queen (now marked) was obviously small in comparison to the other 2 so the queen was easy to find, but the bees were calmer than I have ever seen them (and my wife says they were similar in nature to the original neuc that started all this crazyness!) so that is cause for some celebration.

the question is what to do now? We will look to combine the known good colony with one of the others I'm sure, but we don't want to merge a good queen to a hive we aren't 100% sure there isn't a queen. Do we wait a couple of weeks to see if the 2 Q? start laying?

 

[the beehive lodge]

yes wait the weather plays a big roll in mating flght i would a shame if v queen are presant

 

[oliver90owner]

Hunting for virgin queens is a waste of good time. Better things to do - like leaving them alone. One deduces from your post that there is no new brood in these colonies.

Hope the queen you marked was mated.

You will likely find a queen far more easily if there is a brood nest. It is somewhere to start.

 

[SunnyRaes]

Is there a problem if she wasn't mated??

 

[oliver90owner]

Yes. Could be. Why take the risk?

 

[SunnyRaes]

you're asking the wrong person! I'm just the ignorant assistant!

 

[oliver90owner]

Think queen which needs to fly. Coloured splodge over her thorax and potentially over one or both wings may have some adverse effect on her chances of getting mated without falling prey to a sharp-eyed predator. There is also the risk of damaging the queen when marking, even before going on a mating flight, or having the unfortunate incidence of the workers thinking she is an alien queen and disposing of her... 'nuff said?

 

[SunnyRaes]

Here's hoping she was mated then!

 

[bobster]

I wouldn't go hunting for the queen until you have evidence that she is present and laying. You could be trying to search for something which doesn't exist!

From you post this is not clear. Do you have eggs/larvae in all three hives?

FWIW my virgin queen took four weeks to get going. I haven't found her yet. The colony is now expanding very rapidly.

I'm wondering if the break in brood in April was actually beneficial for getting the varroa count down. Hence expansion is quite rapid now.

Bobster

 

[SunnyRaes]

No eggs or larve in any of the 3, but given the timescales I don't think I'd expect them yet.

I have to admit that its difficult not knowing the first thing about bees other than what I've picked up in the last month or so and finding things out that the person with the training probably should know / have known and it being clear that they've simply never been told! As always, its the difference between theory of the people doing the training and practice in the very detailed real world and applying real world logic!