Open the top of one of my hives, which has 2 brood boxes, two fully cap supers, and a 2/3 cap super on top, and what do I see...a ball of bees. Open the ball up with my hive tool and there staring at me was the queen. She did not go down, but flew out to greener pastures. Why would she be up there? I check the three sups on top and no eggs, larva, or brood just honey.
Any suggestions to what I need to do. I am going to extract in two weeks. That is why I was looking in top super to see if it was cap. Should I let them start a new queen?
They may have already been superceding her which MAY account for them balling her.
You would have to look in your lower brood boxes to verify this. She may have ran up there to escape them before being caught. This all supposition on my part.
What do I need to look for in the lower brood boxes?
Thanks
I'd guess that a mating queen wandered back to the wrong hive.
I will do a second extraction in two weeks and treat with apiguard then. Hopefully, I will see eggs in my hives then.