I need someone to explain to me what I saw today. First a bit of back story:
As mentioned on an earlier post(s) I have a long hive. 12 days or so ago I found it loaded with q-cells. I pulled out two, 4 frame splits. One with the old queen and one with a couple capped cells, and left the rest in the hive (at least 6-8 capped and many open with larva).
The hive had been and continued to beard heavily. This morning I pulled a portion of the bottom off and installed a screened panel. When I did this a cupful of bees spilled out under the hive, pessimist that I am my first thought was...probably dumped the queen!
Later that day I was peeking around to see how the bees took the change. There were a dozen or so trying to enter through the screened bottom. As I was down under the hive I could clearly hear a queen piping inside the hive. Excellent, now I know she is still inside. At the same time I looked up and saw a queen on the leg of the hive. I got a good look at her and could clearly hear another in the hive while I was watching her.....well that's interesting I thought as the queen I was looking at scurried up the hive and around the corner.
At the end of the day I walked over to take another look at the front of the hive (which completely stopped bearding with the SBB). Again I see a queen. This time she is hiding just under the edge of the lid. She flies down to the ground under the hive, back up to the SBB, then off the hive and lands on the front again. She runs up to the top entrance where she is promptly beat back by 2 guard bees. She scurries down to the bottom entrance, and is again chased off. Then she goes back to a corner by a leg and sets about grooming her antenna and abdomen thoroughly.
I am not positive, but I thought that I saw yet another queen zoom in, land and shoot right in the bottom entrance during this time.
When I left the queen I had been watching was still hiding tucked up under the edge of the telescoping cover. I had at first thought I should try to catch her and dump her into the hive...but the girls don't seem to want her.
So what did I witness? I know inside the hive the queens will fight it out and destroy maturing cells. Will the hive also expel a spare queen like the they do drones in the fall?
They may already been queenright and the one you are seeing is an extra. Personally I would hate to see a queen go to waste and if you have the numbers, start a nuc. Either way, I would make sure that the one you are seeing is definitely an extra.
Well,
yesterday morning I went out and the queen was in the grass in front of the hive. Very lethargic. Moved her onto the entrance and she slowly went in with a few bees hassling her. Looking up through the new screen bottom 10 min later I could see the bees balling something (her I assume) just inside the entrance and hear another piping away somewhere further back.
i'm not a pro just a newbee but it sounds like the queens had a draw and the bees picked the one they wanted. specially if they didnt let the other queen from the ground be put in. if that was the queen in the hive u would think that there would of been a ball of bees on the ground with her to protect her and guide her back in. sound like there's another queen in there just keep a close eye on it correct me if i'm wrong on this i'm still leaning. best of luck to ya