# I dropped or killed my Queen :(
**URL:** https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262
**Category:** General Bee Chat
**Created:** [June 2, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262 "2016-06-02T16:06:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bobby\_Thanepohn](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Bobby_Thanepohn)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/1 "2016-06-02T16:06:00Z")
After spotting what looked like several emergency queen cells this past Monday I did a full inspection last night, determined the situation and made some decisions.
Let me go back in time and outline the events leading up to last night.
- Saturday, May 21st: I did a cursory inspection on my Flow Hive by removing the Flow Super and tipping the top brood box up.
- May 21st: Observed a few uncapped swarm cells containing larvae and royal jelly. I opened the hive, quickly inspected and (unnecessarily) culled several of the swarm cells.
- May 21-24th: Started gathering equipment for a split and/or swarm trap: 10-frame deep brood box, bottom board, inner cover, lid, nuc box and 20 deep frames - 10 waxed plastic foundation, 10 wax foundation.
- Wednesday, May 25th: I did a full inspection, found additional swarm cells I’d missed or that were new and very few eggs (kinda honey bound). Did not see the queen.
- May 25th. Made a split into the 5-frame nuc with eggs, larvae, swarm cells and capped brood. The split consisted of 3 drawn frames covered with bees and I shook an additional frame of bees into the nuc. I ensured the queen was not on those frames.
- Monday, May 30th: Inspected the nuc, found new drawn and capped queen cells in upper portions of frames.
- May 30th: Inspected Flow Hive to ensure no new swarm cells were being created and the urge to swarm had been eliminated.
- May, 30th: Found multiple emergency queen cells throughout the hive. Some open, some capped. No eggs present. My immediate suspicion was the hive was not queen right. Mulled next steps.
- Wednesday, June 1st: Made determination to take some advantage of all the queens being developed (over 20). Moved the new 10-frame hive I’d obtained the week before to the apiary and performed another split. 5 frames of capped brood, food and queen cells were transferred into the new hive and entrance reduce put in place.
- June, 1st: Culled all but the largest 4 queen cells from the parent colony and all but the 4 largest from the split. Delicately removed 2 to which were given to a neighboring beek to try and raise. This proved difficult as I use plastic foundation.
So here I am - 75 days after hiving 2, 3-frame nucleus colonies with this:
Doing the bee math, I dropped or rolled my queen on the day that I did my initial swarm-prevention split.
Yes, that is unfortunate and I wish it hadn’t happened but on the bright side, I’ve gone through a bit of a trial by fire and learned a lot.
Another plus is that IF the new queens mature and return from mating flights successfully, I’ll have expanded my apiary to 3 full-sized hives with a nuc to pull brood from to supplement their growth.
So, no bothering those bees for roughly 3 weeks when it will be time to check and see if the hives have laying queens or not. If not I can do one of two things, take eggs from the remaining queen-right hive and try again or purchase 3 new queens. I’ll likely purchase.
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### Author:  [@Eva](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Eva)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/2 "2016-06-02T16:40:39Z")
Hey Bobby - I also killed my queen without realizing it until the colony had pretty much fixed the problem. Made me feel like a big dummy. And, like you I sure learned a few things I won’t easily forget.
Nice job making lemonade out of that situation! 🕶🍋
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### Author:  [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/3 "2016-06-02T16:45:29Z")
> [@Eva](#):
>
> And, like you I sure learned a few things I won’t easily forget.
The best part is that because you both shared your experience, a ton more beekeepers can learn from what you have done. So thank you for being brave, honest and open. Much appreciated! 😍
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### Author:  [@Bobby\_Thanepohn](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Bobby_Thanepohn)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/4 "2016-06-02T17:01:03Z")
Killing the queen is not a method I’d recommend, but I definitely prevented a swarm LOL
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### Author:  [@Eva](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Eva)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/5 "2016-06-02T17:07:18Z")
Syria needs beekeepers like us 🙃
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### Author:  [@Gerald\_Nickel](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Gerald_Nickel)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/6 "2016-06-02T18:04:59Z")
Bobby,
That sure does sound like my “Pine Hive” senerio ! It looking back at my notes n records sure similar !! Now I have a split hive named “Alder”.
 They are packing in nectar n this week all the brood have hatched with no eggs or brood or evidence of a queen that should have hatch. Pine had extras this week. There were extra supercedure cells so I took one extra frame of cells back in the hive. We’ll see what happens in two week. Crossing my finger ! 😉
My other two Hive (10 frame) n one 5 frame (swarm) are perfect models of hives. Good to have a not so perfect colony to learn a wider knowledge of hive stuff. .
Thankz for the share !
Gerald.
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### Author:  [@adagna](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/adagna)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/7 "2016-06-03T01:41:41Z")
I guess a side benefit is that your mite population will be very low by the time she starts laying again since you ended up accidentally forcing a brood break. There’s always some silver lining.
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### Author:  [@Jeffm](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Jeffm)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2017, 3:35am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/8 "2017-04-30T03:35:17Z")
A question with out notice - sorry. What marker /paint can I use to identify the queen without causing her some toxicity issues?
cheers
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### Author:  [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2017, 7:06am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/9 "2017-04-30T07:06:30Z")
Most bee supply stores sell the right paint. I buy a new pen (it comes in a pen) every year. 😄
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### Author:  [@Webclan](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Webclan)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/10 "2017-04-30T13:43:03Z")
Our local bee supply store sells nothing but boxes and wax foundation.
I guess the pen should be water based acrylic paint? If you want to honor international queen marking rules as a serious beekeeper, 2017 queens are marked yellow.
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### Author:  [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/11 "2017-04-30T16:52:51Z")
> [@Webclan](#):
>
> I guess the pen should be water based acrylic paint?
I use these:
[https://www.mannlakeltd.com/queen-marking-pen-3100](https://www.mannlakeltd.com/queen-marking-pen-3100)
[http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Queen-Marking-Pen/productinfo/389/](http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Queen-Marking-Pen/productinfo/389/)
The Uni POSCA pens are available from Amazon too. 😉
The Brushy Mountain one is enamel.
Make sure you have a cage of some sort to gently immobilize the queen while the dot dries. Otherwise it smears all over the place. Not telling how I know that… 😊
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### Author:  [@Jeffm](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Jeffm)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/i-dropped-or-killed-my-queen/7262/12 "2017-04-30T21:31:32Z")
thankyou - I have sourced posca pen, now " where did I put that darn queen?"