Beekeepers are taught that the queen will most likely be in the brood nest. That is, she will be on a frame which contains brood or is ready for eggs. She will almost never be on the end frames, on combs of honey, or strolling in out-of-the way places looking for peace and solitude.
The operative word here is “almost.”
Much to my surprise and dismay, I have found my queens:
- In the telescoping cover which I had thrown on the ground
- In an empty super I had carried back to the shed
- On a frame of brood after repeated shakings (this has happened a number of times)
- On the landing board
- On my sleeve
- Between the inner and outer covers
- On the inside wall of the brood box
- On the top bars
And remember, these are just the ones I found.
But in spite of all these sightings, I still go into a hive naively confident that the queen will be in the brood nest . . . and I’m still shocked when she’s not. All of which goes to show more about human psychology than the queen’s.
Rusty
Queen bee. Flickr photo by Maja Dumat
Words to live by!
I’m a new beekeeper this year and have spent 2 years “learning” how to keep bees. When I finally got my bees this year, I found myself not having the information I needed for all the circumstances to come. It was cold for a long time until recently so the feeding of the bees was longer than the month I was told. However, reading this blog has been the best thing ever. I’ve learned more from here than the 2 years of learning from books and classes. I love this article about the queen. It took over a month to finally see the queen . . . eggs everywhere but no sight of her. I would check every other day. It wasn’t until I added the second brood box I was able to see her. Who would have thought more frames made it easier. Now I see her all the time. These articles are the stuff the books don’t tell you. I love your articles Rusty, thanks.
Jason,
Sometimes I wonder if the site is worth all the work. But a comment like yours can keep me going for a long time. So thank you many times over for your kind words.
Cheers!
I loved an article awhile ago (memory might be fuzzy) about requeening a hive and it was just before rain and not ideal times. I loved that you wrote about it because it made me realize that others deal with problems like I had. It was a few weeks after installing a new hive. I put my feeder inside an empty brood box. Well I was working 14 to 16 hrs a day at 2 other jobs and one morning realized I needed to check the amount of syrup left but it was barely daylight. Well. . . I found out they don’t like that. I was stung in the neck and knuckle. But I had no choice, the bees need to eat and I wouldn’t be home till after dark.
The books don’t talk about this stuff so much. So I love your articles about frustration because I believe there are many people out there going through the same thing. The article about beehive smell, loved it. I could relate so much to how precious that smell is. These are the things no one talks about in the books. Keep going, I look forward to reading your articles everyday.
Thank you, Jason.
Very interesting site. Keep it going