Observed something weird today- I was performing a final inspection on my weakest nuc (which I assumed was queenless by now as it was a small split just before the freezing period we had here in May and it was a long shot that they would make their own queen) when on the second pass I found short/slim virgin queen, the timing was about right for her to be mated and start laying, but of course few days one way or the other is normal, so I marked her, closed the nuc and walked away.
An hour or so later I saw her taking short flights in front of the hive with small entourage of bees, so I assumed she is planning to go mating, but this went on for about 8 hours (12PM-8PM) with no changes- she would try to enter hive every few minutes and would not be allowed by the bees inside, her "own" bees (about 30 or so) formed a cluster over her periodically and then again she would try to walk into the hive or fly a circle around and land on the entrance hole (one small entrance in this box). Now it is almost dark and I can see a very tiny cluster under the hive near the ground where the queen is.
There is no way she will live through the night as the area is fiercely patrolled by all kind of predators (skunks, possums, raccoons). What could explain this strange behavior? If bees had another queen, I would have not found this one in the hive - all queen cells were hatched ~2 weeks ago. If they have no queen why would they not allow this one back in? Even if she is defective or something, it is not like they have any choice...
An hour or so later I saw her taking short flights in front of the hive with small entourage of bees, so I assumed she is planning to go mating, but this went on for about 8 hours (12PM-8PM) with no changes- she would try to enter hive every few minutes and would not be allowed by the bees inside, her "own" bees (about 30 or so) formed a cluster over her periodically and then again she would try to walk into the hive or fly a circle around and land on the entrance hole (one small entrance in this box). Now it is almost dark and I can see a very tiny cluster under the hive near the ground where the queen is.
There is no way she will live through the night as the area is fiercely patrolled by all kind of predators (skunks, possums, raccoons). What could explain this strange behavior? If bees had another queen, I would have not found this one in the hive - all queen cells were hatched ~2 weeks ago. If they have no queen why would they not allow this one back in? Even if she is defective or something, it is not like they have any choice...