[wholesomedirt]

The queen jumped/flew off of the frame during the inspection. Will she just fly away or will it stand to reason that she'll come back? Though I don't think she left. Seems like a dumb question, but I'd never really thought about it. Thanks guys!

 

[G3farms]

I have had them fly away to never be seen again, to coming right back into the hive. I always stand still to see if I will see her land somewhere. Most times they can not fly too far unless they are slimmed down to swarm, are virgins or young mated queens that have not plumped up yet. Looked through a deep one day for close to an hour looking for the queen, finally gave up thinking she was just running on me, found her walking around on my pants leg.

 

[Honey-4-All]

The queen jumped/flew off of the frame during the inspection. Will she just fly away or will it stand to reason that she'll come back? Though I don't think she left. Seems like a dumb question, but I'd never really thought about it. Thanks guys!

Yesterday when doing queens I had one "escape." While working down the line a few queens later I turned and the lost one was sitting on my left shoulder. The answer is Clip and mark, Clip and Mark.

 

[WBVC]

Yesterday when doing queens I had one "escape." While working down the line a few queens later I turned and the lost one was sitting on my left shoulder. The answer is Clip and mark, Clip and Mark.

What does mean by "doing Queens"?

 

[Honey-4-All]

Picking queens and putting cells and virgins back in the holes. Picked 280 for our first two days. Ought to get over a thousand this week as they are "in." First packages ship this week. Working around the rain might make this an interesting time of things. Been a few years since we picked under the EZ-UPS. Makes the job a lot harder light wise for seeing the queens and are a pain in the bum to drag around but sitting there all wet is a worse option by far. The weather for the mating on the early California queens has been pretty good until the last few days. Queen quality from a mating perspective out to be good.

 

[Michael Bush]

If the queen flies, the first thing you do is stand still. She will orient on you and probably find her way back. The second thing to do is encourage the bees to guide her back with Nasonov pheromone. To do this, take a frame out that is covered in bees and shake them back into the hive. This will cause them to start fanning Nasonov. Third, if you don’t see the queen fly back in (be watching and you may) then wait ten minutes with the cover of the hive off so she can smell the Nasonov. If you do these three things the odds are very good she will find her way back.

If you didn’t do those things, there is probably a little better than 50/50 chance she will find her way back anyway.

 

[G3farms]

That is some good advice MB. Never thought about shaking a frame of bees to get them to fan.

 

[FlowerPlanter]

MB
If you do nothing there is a little better then 50/50 she will return.

If you do those 3 things? 80-90 percent?

Thanks

 

[Michael Bush]

>If you do those 3 things? 80-90 percent?

Hard to say precisely... but assuming normal situations where there is not a lot of other confusion in the bee yard (such as installing a lot of packages or doing a lot of splits that would cause a lot of Nasonoving) I'd say at least that high, yes. Probably higher where that is the only hive that is currently in a state of disruption.