Ok, a slightly extended tale - but one which might be of interest to, particularly, newer beeks.
I look after 4 hives on the roof of Manchester Cathedral.
Last year I had two hives with green queens, one with blue (Hive A)
The fourth hive (C ) became aggressive - and contractors replacing the lead in the roof got stung. (Cost me 4 jars of honey, that did!) Needed to be re-queened.
So, I saved up three weeks pocket money and bought one of HiveMaster's best Buckfast queens - so she was a blue queen. But by the time she was happily esconced, I'd treated the others for varroa; treated that hive late - too late.
They got varoosis. This meant the winter bees were compromised. So I had to treat them again in November.
When I opened that hive for the first spring inspection, it was a sorry sight. Queen, looking very bedraggled, and about 500 bees only. I put them in a poly nuc.
Hive A was also in a poor state. Lots of bees, a few dozen sealed brood, three poor queen cells, no open brood and no sign of the queen. I shut them up for a week. A week later, the queen cells were gone, no more sealed or unsealed cells - still no sign of a queen.
So - and stay with me, guys - last week, I put the Buckfast queen & retinue, into a queen cage and put it in hive A.
Today, heeding the warning about starvation, I checked for stores. Outside Hive A, what did I see? A dead blue queen.
B*gger!
I opened up and removed the queen cage to find..........
...... yes - you guessed! - the queen and retinue were still in there!
So, I set her free. She looked really good by now - such a contrast to when I saw her last!
So, chaps and chapesses, I guess the original blue queen was still in the hive - but failing. When the Buckfast was introduced in the queen cage, the residents turned on their failing queen and dispatched her, preferring the new one.
I guess I now have to wait another week or ten days to see if I'm right and they really have taken the new queen as their own.
Learned a lot of lessons today. Including: bees generally know what they're doing!
Dusty