What was she thinking ?

[odfrank]

I installed five Caucasian queens into four frame divides on 7/31. On 8/14 all were fine but one divide looked a bit weak. Today I found a two softball sized swarm in my yard which I hived up. Two hours later they flew away into a boxwood bush. An hour later they flew into the weak nuc, with a black long skinny queen. I assume that it was the queen I bought. What was she doing ?

[odfrank]

Came back to my yard today at 5:00 pm and the same nuc was again returning from some kind of swarm flight. Again saw the queen re-entering. I don't get it.

[Michael Bush]

I've seen a pretty good cluster go out with a queen for a mating flight. But I would assume this queen was already laying? I've also occasionally found a queen outside the hive. I think they get around more than we think.

[Jorge]

I had an interesting swarming experience the other day: my son called me to see what turned out to be an unfolding swarming event. A small cluster (presumably with the queen) had settled high on a branch of walnut treen and a large swarm of bees was circling below and around it. Since it was way to high to reach i decided to try to "laso" the branch, shake it and hope to find the queen and a bunch of bees on the grass below. I managed to get a line around the branch by throwing a rock tied to it. After a couple of good pulls the whole cluster came down but "disolved" in midair. The bees went all flying ... directly back into the hive they had come out of!!! I noticed because immediately after shaking them I saw a large swarm of bees right over that hive. Minutes later all was calm, and the queen seems to be back in busines. I did go and opened the hive the next day and found close to 12 huge swarm cells. I removed the 4 frames containing those cells and stared a nuc with them that had a laying queen in less than a week.

Jorge

[Deano]

hi all , tried to install new queen today .opened the cage it had been installed ten days all the bee but queen died . so i opend the cage to get her out .she flew stright up and gone. will she come back to this hive?

[Michael Bush]

>so i opend the cage to get her out .she flew stright up and gone. will she come back to this hive?

50/50 chance.

It helps to leave the hive open for 10 minutes or so to give her a better chance of finding it as the bees will give off a lot of nasonov pheromone if you leave the lid off.

[thebeeman]

Has anyone ever gotten stung by a queen?
If so , is her sting any worse than a worker?
Has any compairative studies been done on the content of the queen's venom ?

[Michael Bush]

>Has anyone ever gotten stung by a queen?

I have had them act like they were stinging me. I've never been stung by a queen.

>If so , is her sting any worse than a worker?

I think it's very unlikely you'll get stung by one.

>Has any compairative studies been done on the content of the queen's venom ?

I don't know. Since they virtually never sting it seems irelevant.