I split a hive about 3 weeks ago and had them in a Nuc. About 5 days ago, I checked on them and they had outgrown the Nuc, so I hived them. Noticed lots of bearding on all the hives so I went ahead and built SBB's. I checked them about 2 days ago and never saw the queen, which had me concerend, but noticed lots of chaining, so I let them be. Today i was gonna take a harder look to make sure we didnt have a LW issue and I noticed the hive had basically been cut into half as far as numbers are concerend. I pulled out a frame and lo and behold, under the screen was about half the hive. Sure enough, i moved the hive to a solid board, flipped over the screen and there she was..... I let her crawl onto my hive tool and carefuuly moved her to the hive to which she PROMTLEY jumped off and then decided to take a flight....my heart sank. I left the top open for a while and then decided to go ahead and close it up...man, I hope she comes back...we shall see....i thought to myself...:ws
Interestingly I found her
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did you make that up just to use that cool symbol? 
. seriously, i've had similar happen and they almost always come home- but she may return to the bottom of the screen.
good luck,mike
. seriously, i've had similar happen and they almost always come home- but she may return to the bottom of the screen.good luck,mike
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Check for another queen in the hive. When I have had queens under the screened bottom board there was usually a virgin in the hive.
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I had something similar happen to me yesterday. Was out marking queens when I was playing peek-a-boo with a queen who kept ducking under the frame going to the other side.
Well, I turned the frame and as soon as I saw her, she spread her wings and lifted off the frame and flew off. :ws is what I thought. I went and got a frame of eggs from another hive and on a lark, decided to come back and look for her. Found her on the second frame I checked.
Good luck.
Well, I turned the frame and as soon as I saw her, she spread her wings and lifted off the frame and flew off. :ws is what I thought. I went and got a frame of eggs from another hive and on a lark, decided to come back and look for her. Found her on the second frame I checked.
Good luck.
I have had that dream. Where you are talking care of something and the queen flys off. In the dream, I friggin was chasing her everywhere, for some reason, inside my house. As I was trying to catch her she was banging into windows trying to get out and someone else was trying to squish her...dang, did I say dream??
In reality, I have now dealt with this situation 2x.
1. I had capped swarm cells, I spent over an hour looking thru this hive to find the queen to make a quick split. When I found her running around on a frame, I pulled her out, and put her in a nuc with a couple of frames of hives, I know she was in there as I was very careful and watching her as I put the frame in there and closed up the hive. When I went back to the parent hive to rob a couple of queen cells to help a laying worker issue in another hive, when I was done dealing with the parent hive, I went back to show my queen to my neighbor since she asked to see her.....couldnt find her. Thought well there are a lot of bees in there, no biggie. Two days later, my neighbor calls me as I am at the park with my kids and tells me "you have a swarm jumping off in your back yard right now!" I ran home, they were still flooding out the entrance of the hive and flying. They started to form on a branch in a tree farther back in the yard. I capped them and put them in another hive. I went back to the nuc that I had put the queen in...still no sign of her, no signs of eggs, but 2 queen cells open on the bottom and being closely maintained. So yes, they can return even though they took flight.
2. The queen flew off of a piece of comb I had from out of a cut out. I saw her fly off and I panicked! She quickly landed on the ground below me and I did a fireman slide down the ladder. I pciked her up, put her in the hive and watched her crawl in, then resumed my cut out. Then next day, all the bees were back in the wall in a big cluster and the hive was empty. Grrrrrrr...still working on this cut out, but life happens and sometimes a challenge is a good thing.
So keep your head up, all is not lost and most of the time, the bees know what they are doing even when we don't.
C2
In reality, I have now dealt with this situation 2x.
1. I had capped swarm cells, I spent over an hour looking thru this hive to find the queen to make a quick split. When I found her running around on a frame, I pulled her out, and put her in a nuc with a couple of frames of hives, I know she was in there as I was very careful and watching her as I put the frame in there and closed up the hive. When I went back to the parent hive to rob a couple of queen cells to help a laying worker issue in another hive, when I was done dealing with the parent hive, I went back to show my queen to my neighbor since she asked to see her.....couldnt find her. Thought well there are a lot of bees in there, no biggie. Two days later, my neighbor calls me as I am at the park with my kids and tells me "you have a swarm jumping off in your back yard right now!" I ran home, they were still flooding out the entrance of the hive and flying. They started to form on a branch in a tree farther back in the yard. I capped them and put them in another hive. I went back to the nuc that I had put the queen in...still no sign of her, no signs of eggs, but 2 queen cells open on the bottom and being closely maintained. So yes, they can return even though they took flight.
2. The queen flew off of a piece of comb I had from out of a cut out. I saw her fly off and I panicked! She quickly landed on the ground below me and I did a fireman slide down the ladder. I pciked her up, put her in the hive and watched her crawl in, then resumed my cut out. Then next day, all the bees were back in the wall in a big cluster and the hive was empty. Grrrrrrr...still working on this cut out, but life happens and sometimes a challenge is a good thing.
So keep your head up, all is not lost and most of the time, the bees know what they are doing even when we don't.
C2
i couldnt find her and thats when i went looking. There arent any other virgins in it I assure you. I didnt go back and look yesterday, figured I let bee for a day or so b4 i went looking. She was PERFECTLY capable of flying and she had been mated somewhat because of her size. I put them back on the solid bottom board and scooted it back about 2 inches so that they couldn't confuse the 2. Once she is back, or I hope she is back, I will go back and put them on the SBB. JUst have to make sure she is there, or let them start all over...LOL. I have watched the queen fly off b4 in an inspection, so I do what I normally do, just button it up and leavem alone for a few days.
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Had a queen object to being marked and flew down between her hive and her neighbor's. Of course, my eyes weren't quick enough to follow and I lost her. I waited a couple hours before going back to her hive to take a quick look and spotted a small clump of bees on some tall grass right in front. Scooped them up into my glove and sure enough, there she was.
Wayne
Wayne
Just a quick update.....she never came home I added a frame of eggs and brood to them 2 days ago and checked again last night and sure enough, there are a few capped cells and many more on the way. Welp, good thing is my FBM hive had plenty to share......bummer really.....
I added a frame of eggs and brood to them 2 days ago and checked again last night and sure enough, there are a few capped cells and many more on the way. Welp, good thing is my FBM hive had plenty to share......bummer really.....Fish, I really cannot explain it, but i assure you that they did indeed do it. I did a double take when I saw it as well. There are a ton more that are built as well. They had plenty of cups sitting there as I bet they were itching to get going on brood, but the queen never came back. Its crazy, but this is the fastest i have ever seen it. I can try to replicate it and document it if you like. These are a split from my FBM. hive....
just for complete giggles i went and looked again...if you look at my origional post, it was on the 26th. I posted i found a capped cell last night. Well, i just went and looked and overnight they capped 6 more cells....so now there are a total of 7 capped in 3 days....hmmm. Heres the thing, i PROMISE you there were none when i added the frame of brood!
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