What on Earth is going on here!?

[GlenJ]

You’ve lost me now. You’ve found the queen in the brood box.
How would another get into the supers
And I thought you dumped the bees into the hive
Where have the bees on top of the crownboard come from?

Open feed hole?

 

[Boston Bees]

Apologies. I scooped all the bees from the front of the hive onto the crown board which is on top of 2 supers and a QE. So if this was a swarm with another queen I may have put the swarm queen into the supers.

Why didn't you take the crownboard off before dumping them into the top of the hive?

 

[gwt_uk]

Open feed hole?

Yes the feed holes are open

 

[gwt_uk]

Why didn't you take the crownboard off before dumping them into the top of the hive?

I was wanting to see how they behaved and was keeping an eye out for a queen...figured it would be easier to see her on the crown board rather than on top of frames.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well wait a week and see if you have eggs there…… in the supers
Lots if beekeepers , commercial especially unite two colonies without removing one queen. They seem to do ok
Close your feeder holes.

 

[gwt_uk]

Well wait a week and see if you have eggs there…… in the supers
Lots if beekeepers , commercial especially unite two colonies without removing one queen. They seem to do ok
Close your feeder holes.

Perfect cheers

 

[Erichalfbee]

Perfect cheers

Let us know won’t you.

 

[gwt_uk]

Let us know won’t you.

Will do! been a challenging bee year so far!

 

[Swarm]

They usually are

 

[gwt_uk]

Let us know won’t you.

Update. The queen I marked has now vanished. No eggs brood or anything in the BB or in the supers I put a clearer board on the supers and the bees are not leaving so I am now sure that this was a swarm and I have an unmated queen in the supers.

I have purchased a new mated queen as I am thinking the virgin queen will have been in there too long. I am thinking to remove the supers from the hive plus the bees and put them on another stand with floor roof etc. Or shake all the bees from the supers into another BB and put them on a new floor, stand etc. I will then put the new purchased queen into the original BB.

Thoughts?

 

[Boston Bees]

Update. The queen I marked has now vanished. No eggs brood or anything in the BB or in the supers I put a clearer board on the supers and the bees are not leaving so I am now sure that this was a swarm and I have an unmated queen in the supers.

I have purchased a new mated queen as I am thinking the virgin queen will have been in there too long. I am thinking to remove the supers from the hive plus the bees and put them on another stand with floor roof etc. Or shake all the bees from the supers into another BB and put them on a new floor, stand etc. I will then put the new purchased queen into the original BB.

Thoughts?

You ordered a new queen, and THEN came for advice on here?

I think you need to take all restrictions out of this hive (clearer board, queen excluder, whatever), give the poor confused bees a chance to sort themselves out without these man-made obstructions, wait two weeks to give any new queen that's in there a chance to come into lay properly, and THEN think about an alternative.

PS: Next time, don't mark a queen until you see eggs. That was probably a virgin you marked. If the marking process damaged her in any tiny way, she wouldn't have been able to get mated. I know the pros mark virgin queens, but you and I aren't pros.

 

[gwt_uk]

Update - Purchased Buckfast queen introduced a week ago has now settled in and is happily laying. Will not be marking queens in the future until I know they have successfully mated. Lots of new lessons learnt this season!

 

[rook66]

You ordered a new queen, and THEN came for advice on here?

I think you need to take all restrictions out of this hive (clearer board, queen excluder, whatever), give the poor confused bees a chance to sort themselves out without these man-made obstructions, wait two weeks to give any new queen that's in there a chance to come into lay properly, and THEN think about an alternative.

PS: Next time, don't mark a queen until you see eggs. That was probably a virgin you marked. If the marking process damaged her in any tiny way, she wouldn't have been able to get mated. I know the pros mark virgin queens, but you and I aren't pros.

I have bees for over forty years and my philosophy is - consider every day a school day, I ask myself "what will I learn today?"

 

[Cuckmere couple]

Update....had a look inside the hive tonight. The new queen I marked was present, found her on the dummy board

Will now leave them for two weeks and hopefully she will start laying.

i tend not to mark queens until mated in case a blob of paint affects the process....in fact...i usually wait to go into the hive until enough time elapsed to expect eggs etc.....not sure what others do