Hi all,
First thing to know is I'm still a noobee. It's always fascinating learning experience every time I visit bees, and today was a doozy of a lesson for me.
We took delivery of two strong packages a week ago but, due to circumstances beyond our control, haven't quite managed to finish building their permanent homes. As a temporary measure we installed them in nucs, each containing four foundationless frames and a feeder. Today was day three in their nucs so I went out to check on their progress and to refill their feeders if necessary.
I carefully lifted the lid off the first nuc and laid it gently down next to the stand. Things appeared to be OK with plenty of bees going about their business inside the box. I slowly lifted the top of one frame just far enough to see if there were any signs of comb. There were plenty of bees festooning below but no sign of comb, so I lowered it gently back down. The next frame also had lots of festooning bees plus the beginnings of some beautiful fresh comb which was a great relief. After lowering that frame back into its slot, I topped up the sugar water and carefully placed the lid back on the nuc.
Since everything seemed to be going OK I was about to strap down the lid and go off to check on the other nuc when I happened to notice a small huddle of maybe 20-30 bees down in the brush-hogged rough grass about six feet in front of the nuc I had just looked at. I thought it was strange so I stopped and watched them. As I stood there for maybe a minute the numbers of bees steadily increased, and then I realized the nuc's quiet humming sound seemed to have changed ... I remembered reading about bees 'roaring' if they became queenless and it suddenly occurred to me that might be what I was hearing ... It then hit me - my nuc's queen might somehow be in the middle of that growing clump of bees!
Crouching down by the now almost softball sized cluster of bees, I took a deep breath and very gingerly put my hand into the grass underneath the bees and moved it very slowly upwards, encouraging the bees to move up the stems of grass between my fingers as I did so. I didn't know how they'd react, but thankfully they didn't try to sting me at all, and I spotted the queen! She was right there in the midst of all the bees running around in the palm of my hand. I managed to scoop her up with a good handful of of her attendants and get them safely back into the nuc without further incident, the small number of bees left on the grass scattered quickly, and the sound of the nuc soon settled back down to the normal, quiet hum.
I don't know how she got to be out there. Since there's very little comb built yet I suppose at the moment she's got nothing to do so she must have been wandering around on the underside of the lid, or on the end of one of the two frames I peeked at, or something. No matter how it happened I'm going to be paying even more attention than before, because the last thing I need is to lose a queen like that. A local beekeeping supply storekeeper told me recently he'd had several folks tell him they'd seen queens actually walking away from their hives this spring! I don't think that's what mine was doing, but I suppose it's possible.
The other nuc check went according to plan, thank goodness, and I certainly hope we get their permanent homes finished quickly and everything else goes smoothly from now on! It's a good lesson learned though. I'm extremely glad I took the time to stop, watch, and listen to my bees.
Have any of you experienced anything similar?