Is that my queen?

Beekeeping - Basics
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Hi, I am a new beekeeper who was an old beekeeper in the 1980s. Starting again I have two hives, one started with a nut about three weeks ago (Italian) and one with a package and Carnolian Queen about five weeks ago. Both seem to be thriving. Yesterday, because a brood chamber looked as if I had not treated it with Tung Oil, was removed after two days and replaced with a painted one on my older hive. It was there to make the brood chamber two hives deep before putting on my flow hive. (Last night I treated it with Tung Oil and realized that I already had done so, and it just did not change color). After removing the deep super and substituting the other one, I noticed what might have been the queen sort of drunkenly moving around. Her are pictures of the varmint. I am not sure they have uploaded.

My questions are these?

  1. If she went back into the hive (which I believe she finally did and she is the queen, is she going to be OK?
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  2. If she isn’t a queen is she a drone? I never was any good at telling which the drones are.
  3. What would happen if a second queen were introduced without finding the first one?
  4. If she is the queen, why did the other bees ignore her?
  5. what would you do now?

I tried dragging photos here but they seem to be on another tab.

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Most of your pics are of a drone. Clues:

  1. Rounded butt (queens have pointy butts)
  2. Wings too long for a queen
  3. Eyes too big for a queen
  4. Hairy thorax - the round bit between the head and the abdomen is hairy, in most queens it is shiny, unless they are very young

:blush:

Helpful photos, thank you for the effort. Makes it much easier to help you. :wink:

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It looks like a drone because the eyes are so big. And a queens body is longer from what I know.
There’s a good pic floating around the forum somewhere.

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If the hive was used to the first queen (been there for a few weeks) they would probably kill the new one.

Wait and inspect in a week or two. :smile:

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Faroe n Dawn,

Here’s one of my Queens i photographed couple weeks ago.

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she’s a pretty topical Italian queen. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Gerald.

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Jerry’s picture is fabulous. You can’t easily see the eyes, but it shows the shiny thorax, pointy butt and wings covering less than 2/3 of the abdomen, all typical of a queen. Lovely photo, beautiful queen. :blush:

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What topics do you discuss with her Gerald ? :wink:

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He gets all the most recent buzz from her! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’m intrigued by the fact that the queen can’t get through the excluder. They hardly seem that much fatter - certainly longer. It must be a close thing.

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Indeed- I have wondered about that too- it’s both a close and a lucky thing- especially for Flow frames which would be difficult to use if it wasn’t for queen excluders. It seems it is a matter of around 0.9 of a mm. A queen excluder has gaps of 4.3mm- but a queen can pass through a gap of 5.2mm:

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/bsp.html

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Faroe,

What am discussing which “Her” WHO ? Dawn ? Heck ! If you referring to her. She’s my mentor… We discuss everything from mites, drones, queens, biscuit recipes, family, weather… Etc n Etc ! :wink:
Heck … Not much off the bees on here but we both have phone n each other’s numbers. But on here mostly bees, helping new Beeks with more n more beekeeping stuff ! :smile:.

Actually enjoy all the experienced n not experienced Beeks on here. I really like encouraging the “NEW” to keep on keeping on !

Thankz for the note. BTW … How’s your hive(s) doing down there young lady ?

Cheers,
Gerald

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A post was split to a new topic: How to enter the photo competition

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Hey Gerald - I think ol’ Faroe was just pulling your leg! Gotta watch those Aussies :smile:

Good night & sleep tight :kissing_heart:

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Eva…

Your probably right ! Are we having fun yet ??! :wink::+1:

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@Eva is totally correct. @Faroe has a sense of humour almost as wicked as mine. You wrote:

So Faroe is teasing you about calling her “topical” rather than “typical” :smile: Naughty girl, she is! :blush:

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requeening my flow today. Somehow Msple Hive beat me n swarmed leave swarm queen cell. They didn’t take so had to Requeen n added mixed brood frame to buffer n lift my Maple Hives chances of being ready for our seasonal “Peak Flow” of blackberries about mid-June.

Faroe…

I’m totally blaming “topical” on my I-phone correction feather here ! :wink::exclamation::+1::sunglasses:. Plus as you know I usually work my Bees by brail ! :smiley::smiley:. I half blind in left eye n floater in the other. Glad I can find my apiary. As the sting count goes up I know I must be getting close. :wink::smirk:

Have a great week young lady !
Gerald :honeybee:

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As unfortunate as it is that Maple swarmed it’s good to know that even the most dedicated can sometimes miss the boat, thanks for sharing G.
I’m assuming you bought a new queen, any reason why you didn’t let the bees do their thing? Purely for the flow oportunity?

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Skeggley,

I did try to let my colony requeen itself. It had at lease 8 or more capped queen cells so thot I had that done. For some reason the natural way failed me this time Bro. We are only 3 to 4 weeks from our biggest flow of the season. Really not enough time to waist another 2 to 3 weeks on nature so I bought a mated queen n she’s in Maple hive waiting for her ladies/workers to release her.

Hated to do that but got to get a successful
Harvest in if the girls can get plenty for wintering over. Takes about 60 to 80 lbs to get our colonies thru the long cool wet winters here in Puget Sound n often still add a couple winter patties for life insurance. Hate starting over from scratch if a couple patties will get them over the chilly Hump of Seattle :umbrella: Cold n Wet.

Yah … The girls did beat me to the guns in that hive … So far I’m scoring okay in the other five. Guess I can’t win 100%. It keeps me Humble !! :wink::smile::+1:.

Cheers bro,

Gerald.

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Mixed up some brew for couple colonies. It’s moving day for one of my new splits in a Five frame Nuc. I’m taking “Hemlock Hive” out to my daughter place about 12 ms south of us. That way if I need an Emgency Nuc of bees this time I won’t need to buy a new queen. I’ll just use Hemlock. Much cheaper n effective. But with Maple … It caught me (as you might say) with my proverbial pants down ! :smirk::+1:. Ta Ta

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Be careful, Hemlock killed off Socrates… :smile:

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Dawn,

The minute i wrote that note on Hemlock Hive I was almost certain I was going to get some sore of note on the northbound winds out of Cali :smile:. You didn’t waist a moment ! Thankz my Bee Buddy … I know I can depend on you ! :wink::+1::two_hearts::exclamation:

Cheers !

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. Bottling up some Hemlock Water to take with me on the transfer to my daughter place.
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. Have a great Monday … Jerry

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