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18 Apr 2020 3:58 PM

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Message # 8908190

Anonymous member

So, I'm probably just being paranoid...but as I was moving my first frame into the new box a larger looking bee climbed onto my glove, flew to my jacket, and then flew up and away. Now, these are my first bees so it really could have been just a nice sized healthy bee, there wasn't time to compare. I need to know what I'm going to be looking for when I open up the hive in a few days. A queen, yes, but is there anything else I should be looking for? Is she marked/painted? New queen cells being made?

Thanks,

Paranoid Newbie

Last modified: 18 Apr 2020 4:00 PM | Anonymous member

Moved from General Bee Topics: 8 Feb 2021 11:34 AM

18 Apr 2020 5:39 PM

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Reply # 8908317 on 8908190

Anonymous

Queens can be difficult to see if they are not marked. I would wait 7 days and pull frames to look for the queen. There is a good chance you will not find her. She is larger than the workers but so are the drones. The two key things about the drones is that they have large eyes going across the width of the head. Their wings go to the end of there body. The queen is longer with the wings going only 2/3 the length of the body. If the queen is not seen, look for eggs in the bottom of open cells and/ or young larva. If you see that you know that a queen was there a few days ago, then no worries about what happened when you transferred the nuc to a hive. If there is no queen ID or no eggs or larva then you are likely missing a queen. Contact Paul Andersen if that is the case.