strangest thing yet.

10framer · June 03, 2014, 10:40:02 PM

i got to the farm about 45 minutes before dark and checked my queen cells to see how many took. 2 out of 14 and it doesn't look like they even tried to start the rest.
this made me decide to check the split i pulled from this cell starter hive to make sure i had the queen. went through and didn't find her.
when i looked down she was on my boot with no workers around her. i guess she fell off of a frame and luckily landed there.

RHBee · June 04, 2014, 09:02:07 AM

Pretty bazaar Rob. Yet another possible location for the queen. :-D Just how did you happen to notice her on your boot?

10framer · June 04, 2014, 10:04:47 AM

i looked down and she was hard to miss. i may have been resting the end bar of the frame on my toes at some point or something. it just seemed odd.

GSF · June 04, 2014, 09:32:17 PM

Did you buy a lottery ticket afterwards? :-D

10framer · June 05, 2014, 12:51:53 PM

gary, after i found out that only 2 out of 14 grafts took i wasn't feeling too lucky. i kind of rushed that. i made the split and only left the finisher queenless for about an hour before i put the cells in.

BeeMaster2 · June 05, 2014, 07:19:13 PM

Rob,
I had the same problem this past spring. I am pretty sure the problem was that I did not add in enough nurse bees to the nuc by shaking in a couple more frames of bees from brood frames.
Jim

10framer · June 05, 2014, 11:59:58 PM

jim, i actually used the full hive for the cells this time. i think i should have left them queenless longer but i was pressed for time. not a big deal but the next round will be for fall splits so it needs to go better.

BeeMaster2 · June 06, 2014, 12:45:33 AM

Quote from: 10framer on June 05, 2014, 11:59:58 PM
jim, i actually used the full hive for the cells this time. i think i should have left them queenless longer but i was pressed for time. not a big deal but the next round will be for fall splits so it needs to go better.

Yes I did the same thing also, not queen less long enough.
Jim

JasonP · June 08, 2014, 12:59:37 AM

Same thing happend to me a little while back, didn't find the queen on my inspection. After puting the hive back together I started to walk away and blow me down there was the queen with a few friends sitting there on the grass! I had almost steped on her! Scooped her up with my hive tool and let her crawl in to the entrance. How that happened i don't know but I hope it dosn't happen again.