Seeing queen vs seeing eggs

rickomatic · May 16, 2009, 06:56:25 PM

It's been 1 month today since I installed my two packages. I've been checking once a week. Today and last Saturday I was not able to locate the marked queen in one of my hives. Both times however, I've found plenty of capped brood, larva, and new eggs. The first two inspections I was able to find her fine. These last two times I haven't located her, but like I said, lots of eggs, larva and capped brood. The one in the other hive has been pretty easy to find. I put a second deep on each hive last week, and both hives are starting to build comb on the innermost couple frames in the upper deeps.
Should I be worried about not actually eyeballing the queen in the one hive for the past two weeks so long as there are fresh eggs and developing larva?

Kathyp · May 16, 2009, 06:59:59 PM

nope. unless i have a good reason to look for the queen, on a normal check i never stay in the hive longer than it takes to find eggs and/or young larvae.

rickomatic · May 16, 2009, 08:28:49 PM

Thanks Kathy. That's what I was thinking. But...you know us newbees. We're as nervous as a bunch of long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs when it comes to our new girls. :-D

asprince · May 16, 2009, 08:34:50 PM

It is always nice to see her but if you see eggs and larva, she or her replacement is there. The marking paint will come off making her unmarked.

Steve

Bee Whisper82 · May 17, 2009, 02:13:06 AM

I read this post and was wondering the same thing. I am a newbee at this to so thanks.

Robo · May 17, 2009, 09:28:22 AM

All depends on your purpose for marking. If it is to keep a quality queen heading your hive opposed to a questionable supersedure queen then yes.

http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/can-you-afford-emergency-queens/

However with what you described, I wouldn't get too concerned at this point because the timing doesn't add up right for a replacement yet. I would be a little concerned that you didn't see the queen. With eggs present (unless it is a laying worker and you can tell that by the laying pattern) there is a queen there, just that you where not able to find her. If/once you do find her, that will tell you if she was superseded or not. Marked queen not only help you determine if the queen was superseded, but help identify her when there are no eggs. Perhaps this is the most important time to be able to locate her. I have seen way to many folks waste their money trying to requeen a queenright hive just because there are no eggs and they aren't able to find her.

So you need to work on finding the queen marked or unmarked. Not seeing her once in a while is no big deal, but after 3 or 4 consecutive attempts is troubling.

tandemrx · May 17, 2009, 11:12:24 AM

My wife and I are horrible at finding queens - well, maybe we just don't spend the time because once I find eggs my wife is eager to stop inspecting and let the bees get back to "normal life".

I also think we don't have the experience of knowing how to "see" or find a queen.

I appreciate Robo's video on marking a queen - I was just about to look up info on how to mark her.

tlynn · May 17, 2009, 11:39:29 AM

I've found a queen on a frame and then looked away and a few seconds later lose her and proceed to scan over the frame for 5 minutes, convinced she dropped off and then finally see her again. Sometimes I focus too much on looking at the bees and not the frame. If I look at the frame as a unit and think of patterns, she's much easier to see. She moves differently than the workers so I can much more reliably pick her out of I am more or less gazing at the frame or a segment of it, if that makes any sense.

tlynn · May 17, 2009, 11:41:56 AM

And remember her natural instinct is to seek dark, which means the deepest area of the hive, to stay protected, so when you pull out a frame you want to hold it toward the sun so you can see it well, and she will want to move to the other side.