The saga of bad bees turned good

The new queen is in place; now her attendants just need to chew her free. I will check on her in a week or so.

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I went back to the hive to check on the queen and to move the hopguard strips that I put in wrong. They did not chew the queen free, first time I have had that happen. I went back today, it has been almost two weeks and she was still in the cage...and alive. But this is where the bad news/good news turns BAD...she flew away. I opened the cage down deep in the hive as I thought she would stay on a frame and allow me to put the hive back together and not worry about smashing her. But as I peeled the screen off the cage she immediately flew up and out and I watched the blue dot on her back disappear. I stood there is disbelief wondering how to call a queen to come home. I came up with no good ideas so I moved the strips, put the hive together, said a prayer, and left.

I know now that I should take out a frame of bees and then shake them back into the hive and they will release, Nasonov, which is a pheromone that orients worker bees to come back to the hive and I guess it works on a queen too. I read that I have a 50/50 chance of her coming back. Hopefully my messing with the hive was enough and some of that was released. IDK...this is unchartered territory for me. I will go back on Tues. or Wed. and look for her and then I guess I will go by another one if she isn't there. She has to go somewhere, our nights aren't super cold, in the 50's, but I think that is too cold for a lone bee to survive. Very discouraging for sure. The hive has a lot of bees, just need some brood and a queen.

Oh no, not what you needed. Fingers crossed she makes it back!

Someone on a thread I'm on over on BYC had the same thing happen when she released her queen. She was freaked but a week later when she re-checked, the queen was back and laying. She might have not been bred enough and went out looking for the final end of season drones to top off. Hope she comes back for you. Since she was trapped in the hive for two weeks, she should be able to find her way back.

I will be checking on her tomorrow.

She'll come back... silly girl!

I hope so, now to find her...thankfully she has a bright blue dot on her. This is a first for me. Glad these bees are being easy to get along with.