[Andrew Dewey]

On Wednesday I caged a queen from a nuc in one of my apiaries and took it home and installed it in a June swarm that went queenless after an open hive. I had some time this afternoon and thought I'd check her - I know a bit early. But there was no sign of the queen cage in the hive! I took every frame out in case the cage had fallen to the bottom board but I couldn't find it. Nothing unusual on the ground outside the hive.

Has anyone else had this happen to them and were you able to figure out what happened?

(It was a plastic cage with just the queen in it - she was installed about 1/2 hour after caging)

 

[fish_stix]

I have seen this numerous times, especially when I'm wearing my tinfoil radiation cover over my veil helmet. Did you see any strange lights illuminating the ground from above? Your queen was probably part of a meal for "The Little Invaders."

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Well, we did have the Northern Lights a night or so ago... I gave up wearing aluminum foil years ago!

 

[Michael Palmer]

It was the Little Man. The one who drinks all the milk...except for a half a sip. The one who causes so much mischiev and always gets aweay with it.

 

[Lauren]

Oh, that is " Mr. NOBODY~" i remember the story well! (but can't remember the author)

 

[jeff123fish]

Same one that steals all the left socks right lol

Seriously though I have had the bees cover them up with wax or propolis before and had to dig out the cages maybe that's what you've got here?

 

[Tara]

Lol...yeah, especially if you attached the cage to straight foundation, they could have built right over it! Either that, or you'll find your cage in the next nuc over... Sure you have the right nuc box?

 

[bruce todd]

You opened yourself up for this. Hambone must be on vacation or it would be worse. Anyway,I almost pissed my pants when I read Fishstix's reply.

 

[Beeslave]

Leave the bottle, pipe, and pills alone. Everything will be better tomorrow.

 

[EastSideBuzz]

Maybe they chewed it up and carried it out in pieces.? They are remarkable little creatures and they adapt. So maybe it is a new strain of bees. They are not AFB but, PLB type. It is a great new green thing because they will eat plastic and help rid us of all the plastic bottles in the landfills. This is an amazing new breed he has. How soon can I get graft of them. I think we can make some bucks off of this new green bee.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Maybe I should just go back to bed... But the sun is up and I have a club Open Hive featuring a TB hive later today - and the PO will hopefully call in a few minutes to tell me that more queens have arrived - Reasons for optimism!

On a more serious note - I'll check the colony where the queen cage vanished again in a few days for a) the queen cage and b) signs that the queen was released before the cage vanished. And in the meantime I'll check my only other single to see if I screwed up and gave them the new queen. If so she's a gonner as that one is very definitely queen right!

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Maybe I should just go back to bed... But the sun is up and I have a club Open Hive featuring a TB hive later today - and the PO will hopefully call in a few minutes to tell me that more queens have arrived - Reasons for optimism!

I should have gone back to bed. No queens and I spent 1 1/2 hours searching in a town I'd never been to for the open hive without finding it!

 

[fish_stix]

I tried to tell you! Now go home and get a new tinfoil hat made, ASAP. They're beaming us 24/7!

 

[Countryboy]

Things like that are not that uncommon once you start getting a few hives, if you rely on memory.

Earlier this year, I had a hive suffering badly from chalkbrood. This hive was located on the SW corner of a pallet of 4 hives. They were trying to supercede the queen. The next time I checked the hive, I found 2 queens in the hive. I left them alone to sort things out.

A few weeks later when I returned to that yard, the hive on the SW corner of the pallet was doing just fine.

A month or so later, I discovered a hive with about 1/2 a frame of bees, still suffering badly from chalkbrood. That hive was on the SW corner of a pallet....right beside the pallet with the hive I had checked last time.

Either I got confused over the location of the hive with chalkbrood, or I had 2 hives, both on the SW corners of pallets, grow legs and swap pallets.

My hunch is you will find the queen cage in the hive right beside the one you checked.