Experiment gone wrong

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

There is a hive in the apiary that I have a hate/ hate relationship with. They hate me and I hate them. They were caught as a swarm last season and have been as mean as an angry dog from the day they were placed in a hive. At the moment they are still in one brood box and I have decided to use them for a few tests and experiments as they won?t be allowed to develop into a productive unit with their current attitude. Nectar is scarce and they are only progressing slowly as a consequence. A couple of foundationless frames were added to the hive to see how they would construct the comb. They have taken to the frames quite well and have built about a third of the frames out with a combination of worker and drone brood. Three days ago when inspecting the hive, I saw the queen for the first time. I was using coffee grounds mixed with wood shavings in the smoker and wanted to see how the bees would react. After spotting the queen, I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment. My thinking was to put the queen in a push in cage for about 8 days, allow any eggs and larvae to develop to a point where a queen cell could not be formed and then dispatch the queen and add a frame of eggs and young larvae from a good hive. Today an inspection was made to see how the queen was going and check to see how the bees would react. Everything went pear shaped. What I saw surprised me. Now here is the question for you experts. What went wrong? The prize is 🏆🏆🏆 for the first correct answer.

[iddee]

The queen died.

[Occam]

They chewed through the comb to get her out

[BeeMaster2]

My bet is the made queen cells.
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

What does that mean "everything went pair shaped"?

[cao]

Second Queen?

[Lesgold]

Sorry Acebird. That is probably an Aussie term. It basically means that things didn?t go as planned or failed to follow the plan. Jim, you win the prize..🏆🏆🏆. They started building queen cells two frames across from where the girl was caged. I would be interested in hearing peoples thoughts as to why this occurred. The queen and a few young bees were still in the cage and were running around with plenty of energy. I will still twist her neck on Saturday and add a frame of eggs/ young larvae from another hive.

[The15thMember]

They started building queen cells two frames across from where the girl was caged. I would be interested in hearing peoples thoughts as to why this occurred. The queen and a few young bees were still in the cage and were running around with plenty of energy. I will still twist her neck on Saturday and add a frame of eggs/ young larvae from another hive.

I would guess it was the fact that either all the worker bees weren't getting enough of her queen pheromone and/or the fact that she was no longer laying. 

[Kathyp]

and/or the fact that she was no longer laying.

To the workers, no new eggs means bad queen.  Time for a new one.

[BeeMaster2]

I think Kathy,s answer is the main reason. Suddenly there is very little eggs and wet larvae and the bees respond by making new queens. The cage allows the bees to collect queen pheromones to tell the hive that the queen is still alive.
Jim Altmiller

[Lesgold]

Those answers sound logical to me. Thanks for that.

[Lesgold]

It?s been 8 days since the queen was isolated so I thought that it was time to twist the old queens neck and introduce a frame of eggs from a good hive. I checked the queen cage and she wasn?t there. Looks like the bees somehow did the job for me. She wasn?t in the hive and there was no uncapped larvae or eggs. Perhaps they did this after making some initial queen cells. Not sure how they got to her but they did. I checked around the perimeter of the cage and she could not have escaped. Anyway, I popped a frame containing some eggs and a bit of nectar into the box. It?s newly formed comb so I?m hoping to harvest a few queen cells from this if the bees decide to perform their magic. Will check this in about 4 or 5 days.

[Lesgold]

Checked this hive again yesterday afternoon to see if queen cells were being produced from the frame that was added to the hive. To my surprise, there were newly laid eggs in the frame. Looked through the hive and found the queen back on the job laying more eggs. What a cunning girl she is. Back to square one again.