Abscond sans queen...and a laying worker experiment

KeyLargoBees · May 25, 2016, 09:19:57 AM

Had a swarm move into a trap and they didn't get removed for 10 days due to one thing or another.....they ignored the foundation-less frames with starter strips completely and built wild comb all over the place. Had to treat it as a cutout and couldn't save any since it was so weird and soft and new. Pattern was good and eggs and brood were present so queen was mated and laying. In any event I found the queen and caged her and banded her to a frame and moved the bees over into a new box while I cut out all the funky comb...exact same sized box but this time I alternated foundation and foundation less to try and give them a guide.

Next day I drove by the yard and took a peek and noticed almost no activity...popped the lid and the hive had absconded and left the caged queen and a handful of attendants. I decided to make the best of a bad situation and try a little experiment. I had a hive that had some laying workers in it I had been trying to break of the habit and finally, since I had this "spare" queen", decided to shake them out. Did it and left the hive queen-less for 4 hours and brought the caged queen to the hive now hopefully without laying workers. I decided to be daring and see how they would accept her and they glommed onto the cage and were very calm and seemingly excited and not aggressive...so I took a chance and allowed her to walk out onto the frame tops and both she and the queenless colony were as calm as can be and she walked across frame tops with her new subjects calmly following her and then down in between the frames to begin her new life.

Experiments don't always work but it looks like this one did and I will know in a few days when I check to see if she is laying in her new home.

SlickMick · May 25, 2016, 09:35:50 AM

Well done.. good thinking

Mick

mtnb · May 25, 2016, 11:39:14 AM

That is cool! Why do you think the colony left the queen behind?

KeyLargoBees · May 25, 2016, 03:18:34 PM

no clue Yvonne....I didn't think they would either....but on a positive note....there is a swarm moving into my bait hive 100 yards from where they absconded as i type this...if its queen less I may have gotten them all back and recombine LOL.

tjc1 · May 25, 2016, 08:06:10 PM

Hadn't heard that shaking the bees out would cure laying workers - why would that be?

Psparr · May 25, 2016, 10:08:22 PM

Quote from: tjc1 on May 25, 2016, 08:06:10 PM
Hadn't heard that shaking the bees out would cure laying workers - why would that be?

It's part of the process. The laying workers can't fly back to the hive. Once you put a frame of eggs in the hive they will realize their queenless and start fixing things.

KeyLargoBees · May 26, 2016, 07:26:34 AM

they had eggs and larvae in the hive but they were all drones....The thought is that when you shake out the bees you lose all the laying workers since they haven't left the hive to orient ever and cant find their way back to the hive. When it was said and done I had a pile of bees that never left where I shook them....some workers and a ton of young drones...the ants thanked me

I fully didn't expect the experiment to work but didn't have any thing else to do with the lonely queen so after the hive had been "queenless" for 4 hours post shake I laid her on top of the frames to judge their reaction. There was a gentle rush towards her and they clustered her but it was not aggressive and the bees were easily brushed away so I took the chance and direct released her and it worked ;-)