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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: Daniel Kenan <dan.kenan AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Fallen queen
  • Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2015 18:59:33 -0400

Great post Daniel,

This happens more than folks know. They usually get stepped on by over eager
beekeepers going in all the time. I know I've done it! 😣

It is why I no longer hold a frame out away from the open hive body. I always
hold it over the hive in case she falls...she'll just land on the top frames
or other bees and crawl back in.

Secondly, to reduce this experience and to still reach my goal of accessing a
healthy hive I do not look for her. Just her work- eggs & larvae. My second
bit of advise is to remind folks to start removing frames from the outside
first and work inward. Frame holders are a god send. Holding 2 frames outside
of hive body area frees up room to work without doing the second most harmful
thing to queens and other beers...not squishing them. Tight frames glued in
is a good way to roll a queen and kill her.

So those are my tips to keep a happy hive.
Always inspect frame carefully over the hive body. Store one frame outside
(#10). Then work slowly inward. Just going in far enough to confirm WORK from
a queen. Then I get out and let them be bees!

Marty

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 30, 2015, at 2:14 PM, Daniel Kenan <dan.kenan AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> While checking our hive today, I pulled out a frame containing our queen.
> While admiring her, she fell to the ground and was lost in the leaf litter.
> It took a long while to find her, and I was eventually able to reinstate
> her into the hive. But the experience did make me wonder, what would happen
> if I hadn't noticed her falling off the frame? Would she have found her way
> back inside? How much queen loss could be related to careless handling of
> frames? Thanks, Dan
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