Determining Queenlessness

[Thom Mand]

I recently had a validating experience while inspecting a hive that I thought I would share. I made a split from my strongest hive a few weeks ago, and checked in on the split yesterday afternoon to determine if it was successful. Upon opening the hive, I initially assumed it had worked because the bees were clustered together in the center of the hive. I recall learning (likely from a Randy Oliver hive dive) that you can tell a hive is queenless when there isn't a defined cluster, and bees are just scattered throughout the hive. However, as I went through the hive I couldn't find a mated queen, or eggs, or larvae. This had me confused, I thought it seemed queen-right. So, I went back through the first few frames, and sure enough, there was a virgin queen. I put everything back together, and I'll check back in a week or so. 

Cheers,

Thom

[Robin Chatham]

Good to know, thanks. 

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