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4 days ago I took a queen from a swarm I caught and introduced her (marked her/put her in a queen cage) into a queenless hive (I did a good check for new queen cells/any virgin queens prior to leaving her). I just went out to check and saw that she was out of the cage. I should have just stopped there and not fussed but I wanted some confirmation so I did a quick inspection of both deeps. Tough because the hive is packed w bees but I didn't see her. And I had placed a nice bright blue mark on her.
Most likely I simply missed her. Or, I suppose they could have killed her/or she died. Maybe I missed a virgin queen but I don't think I did on 2 inspections.
questions:
1) I thought swarm queens were usually the old mated queens.. however could the swarm queen have been virgin and she's out on mating flight?
2) Are caught swarm queens more likely to just re-swarm? Could she just have split when she was released from the cage?
3) now that they're backfilling the brood chambers with nectar should I put new undrawn foundation in or leave them to re-arrange stuff when they're again queenright?
thanks
Most likely I simply missed her. Or, I suppose they could have killed her/or she died. Maybe I missed a virgin queen but I don't think I did on 2 inspections.
questions:
1) I thought swarm queens were usually the old mated queens.. however could the swarm queen have been virgin and she's out on mating flight?
2) Are caught swarm queens more likely to just re-swarm? Could she just have split when she was released from the cage?
3) now that they're backfilling the brood chambers with nectar should I put new undrawn foundation in or leave them to re-arrange stuff when they're again queenright?
thanks