[Bob D]

Just curious. As a neew Beekeeper, my biggest concern is dropping the Queen when inspecting the hive. I ALWAYS carefully hold the frames over the hive, locate the Queen, then replace that frame. But my biggest fear is dropping the queen.

If for some rason the queen did fall off the frame and landed outside the hive, barring stepping on her, since my queen is marked, but not clipped,wouldn't she shake herself off and fly back up and reenter the hive?

I just worry because that is one thing they really pushed at Bee School - Be Careful Not To Drop The Queen! I am very careful, but I was just curious why she wouldn't just fly back up and reenter her hive.

 

[Michael Bush]

>If for some rason the queen did fall off the frame and landed outside the hive, barring stepping on her, since my queen is marked, but not clipped,wouldn't she shake herself off and fly back up and reenter the hive?

I've never "dropped" a queen or had her fall off of a frame. At least not that I was aware of.

I have had her fly, especially virgins, new queens in packages and feral bees. About half the time they find their way back. It helps to leave the lid off for ten minutes or so. That way she can easily find her way back and smell the hive really well.

>I just worry because that is one thing they really pushed at Bee School - Be Careful Not To Drop The Queen!

Hmmm. I do try to be careful with the frame that has the queen and not just set it propped up against a hive somewhere.

>I am very careful, but I was just curious why she wouldn't just fly back up and reenter her hive.

Like I said, I've never dropped one (how do you drop one?) But I have had a lot of them fly over the years. Half the time she does find her way back by following the nasonov pheromone given off by the now queenless hive. But she doesn't remember her way around. If she was mated somewhere else, she doesn't know her way around at all. So half the time she never makes it back.

 

[ikeepbees]

I had a queen "drop" off of a frame this Spring. As I was rotating a frame to check the other side, I spotted the queen making her way around the bottom bar. Just then a gust of wind came up and must have caught her without a good foothold, and she fell to the ground. I picked her up and placed her back in the hive, and she seems to be doing ok so far.

I don't know if she would have been able to find her way back or not.

 

[Dick Allen]

This year I ordered a couple of extra queens. One was put into an observation hive with some bees and set on the back deck railing of my house. A few days ago while I was getting the bbq ready I bumped the hive and gravity took over. The observation hive was pretty well smashed up. I was able to set it back up in good enough condition for the bees to return. After a while most of them were back and things were mostly settled down, but I couldn't spot the queen. A few dead bees were on the ground. I looked and looked for the queen on the ground, went back to the obs hive and still didn't see her. Looked on the ground again and suddenly spotted her walking around all by her lonesome. When I put her back into the hive she started walking around and a couple of bees came up to say hello to her. So, I went back to trying to get the charcoal lit. A few minutes later I looked at the hive again and the bees were balling the queen. I had to take her out and cage her for the night. Later that evening I took the bees from the obs hive and put them into nuc along with the caged queen. Next day I pulled the cork from the cage. That afternoon all was well. I wonder what the neighbors were thinking if they happened to see me wearing a bee veil while barbecuing.