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Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Queen

I am worried about the Queen in the observation hive.
But I don't know which Queen I am worried about.
As noted we re-queened the hive a few days ago with a marked (blue dot) queen from Wilbanks Apiary. CSB inserted her traveling trunk (that wire topped wooden box with 3 round connected rooms) into the hive, and we waited. The resident bees did not seem to be releasing her so we did what we are not really supposed to do, and released her ourselves. Then we waited.
A day later we saw her, immobile, and wondered if she was dead.
The next day we noticed that she had moved from the front porch to the bottom frame, and allowed ourselves some guarded optimism.
The following day she was not to be found at all. We did, however sight a Queen. A queen without a blue dot.
So here is the question:
Is she the new queen who has lost her blue dot?
Is she a virgin queen the bees made themselves (highly unlikely given that we saw no cells at any time)?
Is she something else?
And whoever she is, she is not laying eggs, which is the problem.
The Queen is Dead. Long live the Queen.

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