Morning all.
Our hive swarmed despite our split a few weeks ago. We found the queen and marked her but stuffed up and she smeared some onto her wing.
How big a stuff up is this?
Cheers
Ron
If it just some paint on her wing, then its unlikely to do her any harm. The worst that might happen is that, if the hive swarms at sometime in the future, she will not be able to keep up with the swarm and will drop to the ground, probably getting lost. In this case the rest of the swarm will return to the hive.
Clipping one wing of the queen is a common practice in some places to limit swarm losses. It has no effect on the queens performance while in the hive, and i imagine your situation is a lot better than that.
Edit: it just occurred to me that its not clear if your queen is mated or not. If she still has to mate, perhaps it might affect her flying and ability to get to the mating areas. If she is already laying, then above applies.
Thanks Jim, I was hoping that’s be the answer.
Thanks Jim, she’s all mated and laying.