[Jethro21]

Anyone notice their workers being prone to removing paint markings from new queens?

Back story- I split a strong feral hive, intro’d a new marked queen in one (push in cage), removed the feral queen from the other. I monitored the now queenless hive, removing queen cells until any last brood was capped, then intro’d a new marked queen there (push in cage).

Fast forward to after they’ve been released. I know both hives took the queens as the queens were cordovan’s and I was seeing lots of cordovan bees in both hives. But, in both hives, I found unmarked queens, no opened queen cells in either.

I checked the hives over very thoroughly for any hidden queen cells I may have missed, didn’t find any.

My only thought is they stripped the paint off of both the queens. I have 10 hives, have requeened at least half every year and have never seen this. Maybe I’m nuts?

Jethro

 

[ffrtsaxk]

I've watched it happen in my observation hive when they are trying to kill a new queen but end up accepting her. They balled her for 6 days. During that time they bit her and removed the paint.

 

[beemandan]

I see it sometimes but often can find a small amount of remaining paint.
How long ago did you did you introduce the new queen?