Once upon a time, today, 5:00 pm.....
I have had a hive with a queen excluder in it for over a week so I could use it to make queens. The queen is marked and has been below the excluder almost two weeks. I put her in the Jenter Monday and put her back under the excluder when I took her out Tuesday. Thursday morning I put the slide in the Cloak board and today I went to transfer cells. When I pulled the Jenter frame to get the cells, there was a queen sitting there unmarked. She was a big virgin (I think), but she was moving slow so she may now be mated, but not laying I hope. I moved her into a nuc with 3 frames and marked her. I went ahead and transferred cells into the cell bar and put it back over the Cloak. I found the open queen cell.
Oh yea, while all this was going on, a swarm lit in the cedar tree beside the drive way. As soon as they settle down, I'll shake them into a hive.
Nice story Ross!! Can't wait to read the sequel!
...JP