Swarm took over a nuc.

Has anybody ever witnessed this?

It was an italian queen that i had just got bred and she has small amount of brood going.

I noticed alot of activity at the entrance this morning. Thought they were getting robbed. Opened the hive and the queen was getting balled. Got the ball of bees in my hand and it was the original queen.

So I kinda figured they found something wrong with her and were balling her while also being robbed. The population of the hive had increased, but I attributed that to the supposed robbers.

Well being curious yet again, I opened the hive and happened to glance and see a striped queen that the bees were all respecting. I got the original queen out of the ball and caged her but she has now died. They musta got a sting in.

This looks a bit like a queen I just hatched and should have been mating today but I won't know until later if it is indeed her. This nuc is a few yards behind and kinda offset from that one though so it seems like it wasn't an mistaken entry. It seems planned by the bees either way.

If it is her she absconded with a part of the workers in her nuc. then moved into another overthrowing it.

If it is not her then I cannot account for where this mystery swarm came from.

Will know later on this evening and post again.

Here's killer queen.

These are not my bees nor my queen. Well some of the workers are because they took over the hive and killed the queen in it. I have no beekeepers that I'm aware of within a three mile radius of me. The closest one the way the crow flies is a shade over three miles.

I checked my three hives with virgin queens in them. They are all accounted for.

So far they aren't hot. I've been playing with them all morning with no protection. If I get the slightest inkling that they are. I'll knock em out in a heartbeat.

She looks to be virgin or just mated. This should be fun. (:

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2337/img1516xm.jpg
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3668/img1518zj.jpg

Yup, seen it a few times.