Two months ago, I got all inspections done before grandkids arrived thru August. Checked this nuc two more times carefully, could not find the queen, no eggs. It’s not hard to find or not find a queen in a small colony. Purchased hybrid queen, marked her pink, and installed her, I know she was excepted.
Six weeks ago, I took a peek, to see if there were eggs. Yes! Lots of eggs! And there was my happy hybrid queen. I turned the frame around for a sec, and there was this mated Italian queen, unmarked. Geez Louize!
I had a hunch that pink queen was doing all the laying, but I wasn’t completely sure. So, I put the frame with both queens back in the nuc figuring I would find the winning queen the next week. The next week came and they were both still cohabitating together. So I marked the Italian queen white so I could tell more quickly which one wasn’t there next time I checked.
It’s been four weeks and both of them are still there and the colony is peaceful and happy.