Perhaps the bees that live inside the 'top cover' hive did not appreciate a 'foreign' queen sitting on their home?

 

Why would a foreign Queen end up there? Wouldn't she be either out mating or in the hive?

 

I was amazed how fast the attackers would RUN over to the ball after I knocked them off. I've never seen honeybees move so fast. It's like they were on steroids or had 5 cups of Starbucks or something.

 

She is probably a virgin who got confused and didn't find her way back to the hive she flew out from...

 

Okay, very interesting. Always learning new things with the bees!

 

I was thinking about this yesterday and it occurred to me if a virgin queen is out of her hive it means she's already went around and killed all the other queens in the hive first. So I've likely got a queenless hive now, right?

I'm not too worried about that. As long as it has eggs they will rear a new queen. I just hope the queen wasn't from the swarm I was moving or the swarm that was in process flying around. I'll have to inspect it to see if I need to add a frame of brood w/eggs from another hive.

 

So I've likely got a queenless hive now, right?

I'm not too worried about that. As long as it has eggs they will rear a new queen.

From what queen?

 

This thread puts me in mind of the times, when I'm holding a queen by her legs to mark her with paint, when various workers would land near the queen I'm holding and promptly attempt to sting her. I'm surprised how often this happens, but I've learned to be ready to defend the queens I'm holding.

Perhaps this is one explanation as to why some virgins never return from their mating flights.

 

Yes, you could listen for the "queenless roar". The distinctive sound a queenless hive makes, almost continuously, until they are queenright, again. But, unless you can recognize it, it might be illusive. Of course, you could listen, guess which it is, then do a physical check to verify. It could help you to learn the sound, too.

 

I think I know the "queenless roar" sound. I think. Is it a higher energy/pitched and higher volume fanning sound than the normal low bzzzzzzzzz of the calm queen-right hive?

I'll see if I can find some footage comparing the two on youtube or somewhere.

 

Here's some footage I found. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN8O4_PxOsA

The queen was balled this past Friday. It's now Wednesday of the following week. Will they keep up this roar the whole time they are queenless? Or do they at some point resign themselves and resume their queenright sound again? I doubt they would ever sound normal without their queen giving them the normal duties to fulfill. But I wanted to ask.

 

On 4-18-2014 I inspected the hive I suspected the swarm issued from. I also inspected another hive that was weak and turned out to be queenless and I gave a frame of eggs & brood to a few weeks earlier. Both were queenless. The hive I think swarmed had a half dozen supersedure cells on the bottom of the frames. I used newspaper to join both of these queenless colonies to a medium strength queenright colony.

Then my family left for vacation. I inspected the merged colony this past weekend. Both joined colonies had chewed up all their respective newspaper and the merged colony looked good and strong. I scraped off all the newspaper and removed the newspaper pulp from the bottom board. Just wanted to follow up on the thread with what I discovered and what I did about it. Thanks for all of your advice!

 

Thanks for the followup, HiveMind. I'm new, so reading voraciously, and hearing how things turned out helps me learn. And it's good to hear you didn't lose the bees! I love a happy ending.

 

There are several possible scenarios. The queen being balled could be a virgin that got run out when the new one took over. She could also be a queen returning from a mating flight that tried to enter the wrong hive. If I found that queen being balled, I would probably check that hive and the ones next door for brood and eggs and if there is none give them a frame of eggs and open brood so the bees can sort things out.

 

I was observing a new swarm I hived Sunday when I was noticing another 2yr old hive right next to the one the queen was balled on. It should be at least medium strength but is now looking quite weak. I made a mental note to myself to inspect it. I will do that and report back.

Makes me wonder though. Foragers orient and get a lock on their hive location when they first emerge out of the hive and do orientation flights. Do virgin queens do an orientation flight too when they emerge from the hive to mate?