Since hiving the three nucs we had been worrying over our failure to spot a queen in Clarissa but were hoping that we had somehow simply missed seeing her. Then came last Monday when we finally had time and weather to permit an inspection. We still could not find the queen nor any recent sign of her. We have oft complained that our old eyes can not see eggs but we were hoping to see larvae as we have in previous colonies. We did not. The only good news seemed to be that we did not yet have any laying workers to complicate matters.
Having received our bad news, Dr. Milbrath arrived this morning with a replacement queen but first inspected the hive herself and found the queen!
Inexperienced queen-finders that we are, we had relied upon the large, very visible paint markings to locate them. Clarissa’s marking was much less pronounced as her more fastidious court had cleaned most of it off her, leaving a small, dull dot rather than the big, bright, blot visible from feet away which we had come to expect from the other two queens.
But why no larvae? Dr. Milbrath pointed out the larvae. Oh. They were simply younger and hence smaller and more easily missed than we expected. She also saw eggs, which would have seemed like empty cells to us. After all our worry Clarissa’s queen is present and laying as she should. And we are a little embarrassed but happy to be wrong and thankful to Dr. Milbrath.
2014 July 09 at 16:37
I can relate to the “our old eyes” statement. My bees are from swarms, so I don’t expect to see a marked queen, in fact, I never even look for her. If I see larva I’m happy. That said, I’ve got a hive without larva…I’d love to have Dr. Milbrath visit and discover larva and eggs in that hive. I can imagine how happy you are. 🙂
2014 July 09 at 17:45
Alas, you are a little too far away for even the energetic Dr. Milbrath to make a house call. It is amazing that she covers as much of Michigan as she does.
We hope your hive turns out not to actually be larvaeless either. (Larvaeless? Is that a cousin of Legolas?)
2014 July 09 at 17:08
Great news!
2014 July 09 at 17:45
We are so relieved.
2014 July 09 at 18:29
Hooray! Now, spare a thought for the replacement queen – we all know her fate 😦 But eggs and larvae – the colony expands!
2014 July 09 at 21:17
Sorry we did not make it clear but the intended replacement queen simply went back home to rejoin her nuc after spending a day riding around with Dr. Milbrath. An inconvenience for which we feel suitably guilty but she still should have a long laying career before her.
2014 July 09 at 18:56
Congratulations!!!
2014 July 09 at 21:18
Thank you. It is a great relief.
2014 July 09 at 22:21
Congratulations! I still cannot find my queens in all hives but I rely on finding larvae as an indication that she’s still alive and well.
2014 July 10 at 16:06
There definitely seems to be a knack to it which we are slow to acquire. Even spotting one on a photograph of comb is usually a plodding game of “Where’s Walda” for us.
2014 July 09 at 22:29
I am so intensely glad of this good news!
2014 July 10 at 16:10
As are we. There will surely be difficulties but it felt awful to stumble so early.
2014 July 10 at 02:46
It’s only in the last few months I have been able to spot eggs! My queen eye is a bit hit and miss. None of my queens are marked, and I am pretty sure they are masters of disguise!
2014 July 10 at 16:16
Some queens are surprisingly good sprinters as well and run out of sight before one can notice them. We may someday develop a ‘queen eye’ but we despair of spotting eggs. Maybe an app for Google glass?