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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Ryan Chamberlain <rjc7654 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeeping Association ListServ <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Queen on Walkabout
  • Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 10:55:19 -0400

Greetings,

Inspected one of my hives on Saturday, and upon arrival, I discovered a disturbing sight.  There was a queen wandering on the ground in front of the hive.  The colony was a swarm that I captured last weekend, so I have no historical knowledge of their circumstances, other than knowing that she was probably superseded from her previous home.

It was a smallish swarm, but since there were eggs in the comb of her new hive, she was mated, and likely not from an after swarm.

There was no other queen in the hive.  I feel like I did a fairly thorough look through... there were only 3 partially drawn out frames.

There was also no indication that the hive was yet preparing to produce another queen to replace this one found on the ground outside.

My best guess is that she is older and failing... and that the colony kicked her out... similar to the decision made by her former pre-swarm colony.  My inspection came just on the heels of that decision, and since all that was available were eggs, the colony hadn't yet begun to draw out an obvious queen cell.

The main purpose of the inspection was to boost the colony with a few frames of brood from another colony.  I went through with that, and put the wayward queen back in the entrance to the hive.  The entrance bees seemed fine with that, and she made her way back in.

It mostly struck me as strange... and I expect that when I inspect again later this week that I'll see some signs of the colony producing a new queen.  My first inclination is to go ahead and requeen.  I'll do a comprehensive search again to make sure that the previous queen was indeed discarded, and if she's still present, remove her.

Anyone ever had something similar to this happen?

Thanks,

Ryan Chamberlain
919 757 6301


  • [ocba] Queen on Walkabout, Ryan Chamberlain, 04/25/2016

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