Cannot Find my Queen :(

Chrisd4421 · July 15, 2010, 11:43:41 AM

Hi all,
This is my first year with my first hive and things are going well....with one exception....I CANNOT FIND THE QUEEN!!! I know she is there....there is a lot of signs of her activity.....I guess she is just shy....

Thanks for listening.
Chris from NJ

bulldog · July 15, 2010, 11:57:34 AM

i'm new at this also, but i've heard that its sometimes easier just to look for eggs in the cells, then you know she's been there in the last three days at least.

iddee · July 15, 2010, 12:32:04 PM

You will never find her by looking. If you want to see her, quit looking for her. About the third inspection looking at other things, she will walk out in front of you.

Kathyp · July 15, 2010, 12:41:32 PM

and when you do see her, take some time to observe the behavior of the bees around her. pretty soon, you'll almost know as you pull the frame that she is there.

luvin honey · July 15, 2010, 12:57:43 PM

There's a thread on here about marking queens for easy finding. :evil:

Scadsobees · July 15, 2010, 02:00:36 PM

I've had a "runny" hive in which as soon as I would open the hive the bees literally would run away, including the queen. There was absolutely no guaranteed way to find the queen there.

Other than that, like others have said, don't focus on the queen. As long as you have eggs and larvae, she's there and fine. It takes a while to train your eyes to find here, most of the cues to locating her are so subtle as to almost not being describable.

I look for the ugly bee - the one with a big butt and hairy spider-like legs . :evil:

saritacoleman · July 15, 2010, 02:06:20 PM

"I look for the ugly bee - the one with a big butt and hairy spider-like legs . evil"

LOL! We installed our first hive this last May and are new to beekeeping too. We've never seen her when we were inspecting...well...we saw her...we just didn't know it. Taking photos of the frames has helped tremendously to evaluate what's going on in the hive in more detail.

CAHighwind · July 15, 2010, 03:54:29 PM

It's just nature's own "Where's Waldo?" game! When you do finally spot that elusive queen, you just might squeal like a school girl. ...I did, anyway.

luvin honey · July 16, 2010, 10:29:47 AM

Quote from: CAHighwind on July 15, 2010, 03:54:29 PM
It's just nature's own "Where's Waldo?" game! When you do finally spot that elusive queen, you just might squeal like a school girl. ...I did, anyway.

Hah! I love it! It IS a perfect Where's Waldo for the hive :-D