Strange Happenings

[brooksbeefarm]

I bought 10 queens and took 2 frames of brood and nurse bees each from 10 other hives to make 10 (5 frame nuc's). When putting the queen cages in one nuc, the bees were aggressive (biting and stinging the queen cage} so i left the cork in the candy end fore three days before i took it out and waited five days to see if she had been released. I pulled two frames out to see if she was there (the queen cage was empty) and seen her on the second frame along with two queen cells that had holes eaten in the sides. This tells me the newly released queen killed the queens to be. The strange thing is the workers let her live to kill the queen cells (two side by side?) i missed seeing which by the way was built horizontal on plastic foundation that had spotty comb. Never seen this before (horizontal queen cells).
A word of caution. When placing a queen cage in another nuc the screen fell off of the queen cage and the nurse bees went after the released queen, they didn't seem aggressive but when i checked 6 days later i didn't find the queen but did find 4 supersedure cells. Be sure to check the screens on your queen cages i found two others about to come off (not stapled good) Hmmm would this be considered my fault or the queen suppliers? Jack

[honeyman46408]

I have had the bees kill new queens and make their own. I think because I used frames with eggs the girls decided they didnt like the new mom I bought

[db_land]

Another thing to watch for when installing queens delivered in the screen-wire cages: sometimes one leg of the staple goes through the candy far enough that when the bees eat the candy away they still can't free the queen. It's tough enough getting queens accepted for more than 2 or 3 months let alone having them killed by the packaging. Ask for a replacement!