We did a quick check of a hive on Thursday, we also swapped out some empty deep frames with some frames from the freezer that had dead AHB larvae. The frames were still frozen.
We went quickly through the frames, checking the laying pattern and looking for the queen. I didn't like the laying pattern, so we decided we would replace this queen. She's in her second year, and has never been great, so we decided to go ahead and do away with her. We'd gone through all of the frames, but didn't see her.
This queen is marked with a bright white dot on her back. We call her The White Queen.
We picked up a new queen today at Queens R Us in ..., no, wait, it's Gretchen Bee Ranch in Sequin. They pack the queens in a cage inside of a cardboard box with a damp paper towel, a hunk of honey comb, and a few loose attendants.
3Reds and I went out to find The White Queen this afternoon. The hive has two deeps. Looking through the top deep, I found one frame of perfectly laid capped brood, and I began to have second thoughts about killing her. We didn't find her, though.
So, laying the top deep aside, I began searching the frames of the bottom deep. The bees became cranky, bumping me, calling me names, and a few stung my gloves. I was about 1/2 through the second deep when I took a hit to the neck. I found the breach in my armor and closed the gap. I didn't learn until later that two bees had stung me in the same place at the same time. Ouch.
We finished our search of the second box, and I was ready to go inside, but we had not found the queen. I grabbed a nuc, and began the search again, this time removing seven of the frames as I went through them again, one by one.
The sun was low, and I could see deep into the cells. I saw lots of capped brood, lots of larger larvae, and a few really tiny larvae. I didn't see any eggs. I didn't see any queen cells.
I also didn't see The White Queen. Or any other queen.
After we put all of the boxes back together, 3Reds laid the cardboard box with the attendants and the queen cage on the top bars of the top brood box. The bees were still swarming around my face, calling me very unlady-like names. But they pretty much ignored the box. One or two walked around on the box, but no hostility.
We'll go out in the morning and take the queen cage out and place it on top of the hive to see the bees reaction.
I hope the bees would have known there was a queen in that cardboard box, and their dis-interest is a sign that The White Queen is dead. Perhaps we accidentally killed her on Thursday, or maybe she was clinging to one of the frames we removed and we didn't see her. That could account for the bees grumpy disposition.
Or they could still be mad at me for throwing dead frozen larvae into their hive.
Anyway, it'll be interesting if she shows up. This is the same queen that had sneaked into the wrong box during a split. First she was on a frame I was leaving behind. Then she was in the wrong box!
Ninja queen?
or
Dead queen?
