I Found Her!

[tbonekel]

Those of you that have been reading the "failing hive" thread know that I have been concerned about this hive. I saw a queen cell and then last Friday, I noticed that she had emerged but I could not find her. Well, today I got lucky. Can you spot her? Let me know if you don't think this is the queen.


Isn't she the prettiest thing!?

Here is a cropped and zoomed pic.


At least, I hope it's her. I guess she's about 5 days old. Don't think she's mated yet, but you never know. I didn't see any eggs yet. I really didn't expect to.

[LazyBkpr]

I'd say with that sexy cleft in her thorax its a young queen.  Looks NICE.. I want to see a pic o her after shes mated and laying, bet she will really look nice.

[Perry]

Yup, and a nice one. Those stripes on her abdomen make it tricky to pick her out of a group.

[tbonekel]

Can't wait for her to get to work!  This hive has very little in the way of capped brood left. I opened another, very healthy hive and I was going to give the weak hive a frame of brood, but I chickened out. I really didn't want to put a frame in there that potentially had the queen from the strong hive on it. I really looked hard on that full frame of brood for the queen but couldn't see her. I was going to split this hive, but I think now, when I get the courage, I will put that frame of brood in the weak hive. maybe next week.

[blueblood]

Tiger striped queen, nice.  She would be hard to spot.

[Intheswamp]

Nice looking young lady!!!  Good eyes, too, to find her!!!!  Now for the precarious time of mating flights, mocking birds, and DCAs....the life of the colony is in that picture.

Ed

[Jen]

Wow! She's all stripped! Just Beautiful! Mine have the light red abdomens. Don'tcha just get all giggly when you get to see the queens. I spotted her before the close up, getting better and better at finding them 

[G3farms]

Nice looking queen, those darker ones are harder to spot.

[LazyBkpr]

Don'tcha just get all giggly when you get to see the queens.

   Picturing Iddee giggling looking at a queen.......

[Jen]

 

[riverbee]

very cool tb!  awesome picture!!!

[Zweefer]

so happy you found her.. and with the stripes and dark colors to add to the difficulty as well! you may want to mark her to make it easier in the future...

[tbonekel]

I would like to mark her but I will probably never find her again. In fact, when I saw her, I looked down to get the camera out of my pocket and looked back up and lost her. It took a little while to find her again. I've never marked a queen before, but I need to learn how. None of my queens are marked and I really wish I knew their ages.

[G3farms]

Start picking up drones and marking them, no stingers and if you mess up no problem.

[tbonekel]

Excellent idea! I got plenty of drones!

[tbonekel]

I checked the hive today. Couldn't find the queen anywhere and no eggs yet. I'm afraid this hive may be queenless again. She could have been on her mating flight, who knows. I went ahead, though, and converted the hive to a nuc. I also took a frame of bees and brood from another hive and put it smack dab in the middle of the nuc. Fortunately, I found the queen of the big hive on another frame, so I know I didn't transfer her. It might not have been a big deal if I had, but that hive is another story. Anyway, I couldn't see any eggs on the frame that I put in the nuc, but it did have some very young larvae so maybe that will give them something to work with. I'm not sure why I'm wasting my time on this bunch, but if they can pull out some kind of miracle, I can use this as my "go to" nuc in case I need it.

[Lburou]

......I looked down to get the camera out of my pocket and looked back up and lost her.....

That is pretty normal.