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New Queen outside hive

2K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  jwcarlson 
#1 · (Edited)
Have two hives and am rearing queens in both. Culled down to 3 cells per hive a week ago and upon the day for them to hatch I found a queen on the outside of the hive up a few inches from the entrance just sitting there. I placed here at the entrance and she slowly walked in. Today, the next day, I find her again outside the hive just sitting there.

My guess would be that she lost in battle to another queen and chased out of the hive. Your thoughts? (I have never seen this behavior before in 10+ years.)
 
#4 ·
She's probably getting ready to mate or maybe is coming back from mating flights? We hived a swarm that had a virgin queen. Seemed like the next 3-4 days there was heavy late afternoon activity. Seemed like 3/4 of the swarm was out orienting or sitting on the box outside of the hive. I can only assume that it was the queen coming back from mating flights. It was much different than other orientation the swarms with mated queens went through.
 
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