Was that really the queen?

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Deaner666

New Bee
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
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Location
Cornwall
Hive Type
Commercial
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Hello all, two posts in as many minutes!

Quick question:

I'm in my second year of beekeeping and have two hives - one I've had since the beginning of last summer and a hived swarm I caught about 6 weeks ago (see the other thread I just posted!).

On inspecting our more established hive last Wednesday (25th July) I stumbled across the queen. I think.

I don't usually concentrate on finding the queen, as long as there are eggs and larvae I figure she's in there laying away. Especially at this time of the year as the hive is absolutely heaving with bees, making it very hard to see anything.

However, as I quickly glanced over a frame, lo and behold, there was a bee with a very prominent white painted dot on its thorax. It was so obviously a painted dot that it had to be the queen. But boy, if it was, she wasn't looking in her prime! Last year she looked like a queen from any of the books, but this bee was barely bigger than a worker and smaller than a drone. She looked shrivelled up!

She was a new queen last year (as far as I know), so this is only her second year. And she's been a phenomenal layer throughout this year. Brood is still looking extensive and healthy as we move into August.

Is it common for queens to visibly deteriorate like this as they get older? And if not should I be thinking of requeening the hive?

I think I remember in Ted Hoopers book (or was it something by Brother Adam) that queens should be replaced after their second year anyway. Do people here agree with that?

Cheers,

Dave
 
I think I remember in Ted Hoopers book (or was it something by Brother Adam) that queens should be replaced after their second year anyway. Do people here agree with that?

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

I think the beeks with more hives would tend to re-queen every year, but mainly as new queens tend to be less swarmy, plus give a hive a better chance of making it through the subsequent winter.

We had a queen who was coming into her 3rd year last winter, and the hive decided to supercede her at some point over winter, and she subsequently couldnt mate. She was a lovely big queen, and the bees were really docile, so it was a shame.

But as for your question about visibly deteriorating - not to the extent you mention. I guess as they use up their sperm stores they will become smaller/thinner, but our 3yr old queen was as big as she was when we got her, to the eye.
 
Hi Dave,

I think the beeks with more hives would tend to re-queen every year.

MandF when you say every year do you mean Q born this year you'd replace her next year?

Cheers
 
Are you sure it was your marked queen, could it not be a worker covered in balsam
 
Yes, a new queen this year for the winter.

I don't do this, but after last winter's supercedure I am now intending to use an AS queen (if her temperament is ok) to replace her mother when re-uniting for winter, every year, on at least one of my overwintering hives.

This year I have 1 new queen laying, still need to confirm whether she is mated ok, temperament is the same as the parent hive at the moment, and another AS hive which had sealed QCs last week so still some way to go with them yet. As both my queens in the parent hives are last years at least, I will replace both if possible, and then probably alternate using the best queen each time.
 
Are you sure it was your marked queen, could it not be a worker covered in balsam


Or even a bee that someone else has had a practise at marking?
 
Are you sure it was your marked queen, could it not be a worker covered in balsam

Hmm... it's a possibility. We do have himalayan balsam in the valley where the apiary is situated, although I've not seen it in flower yet. The white on her thorax was a perfect circle though and she was 'slightly' bigger than the workers around her.

Thanks for the nod though, I'm feeling a bit relieved that I might have been mistaken!
 
Gotcha thanks
 
You said brood . Check for eggs and of course Queen cells . You said she has been laying well so brood box possibly crowded?
Bees slim their Queen down in order for her to be in flying condition ready for swarming! August is by no means too late for bees to swarm :) especially in a topsy turvy year such as this !
VM
 
I agree....it was probably a worker with pollen on its back!
 
Op has iterated that the marking was a perfectly spherical spot :)
VM
 
Hmm... it's a possibility. We do have himalayan balsam in the valley where the apiary is situated, although I've not seen it in flower yet. The white on her thorax was a perfect circle though and she was 'slightly' bigger than the workers around her.

hmm, if only slightly bigger, could wel be what oliver was saying, a drone from another hive that someone has practiced on - did it have a more rounded abdomen, bigger eyes, bigger wings??
 
I caught a swarm about a month ago that had a marked worker in it....

Dover BKA did a project on marking drones and workers to quantify drifting in the club apiary.
I doubt (and hope) it wasn't one of those - in Wiltshire! (or Cornwall ...)
 
My theory, for what it's worth, is that a crown-of-thorns or plunger cage was used to mark the queen while workers were also trapped - and that the worker rubbed against paint on the cage. Either that or the original owner really needs to take a course...

:biggrinjester:
 
Definitely not a queen. The bee has pollen is carrying pollen on its back legs.

- apologies, I thought Chalkie's photo was of the bee in question..
 
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