Noises from the hive!!

[stella]

I heard a noise I have never heard as soon as I lifted the cover. It wasnt a buzzing noise, it was a repetitive, high pitched beeping bee noise. At first I thought it was a little dog barking in the far of distance. It occurred repeatedly as I was inspecting. I didnt get to the bottom deep to see if it was coming from there because this newbee got kinda freaked out and this is why.....

Yesterday I watched a Nova special, "Tales from the hive". In the documentary when a new queen hatched she roamed around making the SAME NOISE! Could this be what it was considering I saw queen cells in there last week? Or does an old queen make that noise also? Anyone ever heard of this?

[rbinhood]

It is called piping and it is one queen trying to locate another queen, this is the way she finds the others and dispatches them.

[caticind]

Any queen can pipe...so you may have a new queen or not.  Only more careful inspection will tell.  I think it is usually associated with queen infighting and swarming, though.

[AliciaH]

loooooooooooong, short, short, short, short.....I love that sound!

Had a queen I was trying to locate a few days ago.  She was on the frame I was holding and I could hear her, but danged if I could actually see her! 

Finally did find her, but what was interesting was each time she sounded off, all the bees on the frame would freeze!  The closer the bees to the queen, the faster they stopped.  I'd never seen this before and found it fascinating! 

Maybe it's why it took me so long to find her, I was too busy watched the "freeze frame" action!