I moved the bees from the cone into a nuc a while back and now its ready for a full brood box so this afternoon I moved them into a 10 frame, funny but I can never find the queen in that hive, looked many times and even during the move today still no sight.
Nice. :thumbsup: I notice those are what I consider to be dark bees, and I have always had trouble finding queens in a dark colony. I actually have trouble finding dark queens period because I don't come across them all that often so my eyes aren't trained to see them. :shock:
ya very dark, wish I could find her, 1 heck of a egg machine, all 5 frames in the nuc had brood on all sides, I would say it was 1 frame of bees when I put them in the nuc, was a very small hive was not sure if they were gonna make it or not.
When you do find her, mark her with a dab of paint (according to the color code of the year). She'll be much easier to find then.
unlike efmesch I would paint her with whatever paint stick I had in my pocket as soon as I spotted the girl. much like Perry siting unpainted dark queens has always been difficult for me and some people seem to think I am somewhat gifted in regards to spotting queens in general (or at least they pay me quite handsomely for this perceived talent).
Tec, my intention was that zookeep (or anyone who wants to mark a queen) should be prepared to paint with the proper color coded stick. I have a set of five tiny paint cans with the code colors. When I want to mark a queen, I go to the hive with the color of the year ready for my paint stick.
1 thing I am still not real comfortable with is grabbing the queens, hurt a leg or anything and they go into replacement mode and sets the hole hive back, I know its something I need to work on with the luck Ive had raising queens, think I need 1 of those marking tubes, I might feel better doing that way.
Grab up some drones and mark them, good practice!! They are wiggly and you will have to hold on to them.
doing real well after the main yard Anthony and I went back to my house and opened up cone-o-bees and we found the queen, hive is ready for a 2nd box and looks to be hauling in the honey at a good rate:grin:
Found her on the first 3 pictures. :thumbsup: :lol: Quickest give-away, look for the floret pattern of bees around her, they all turn to face her and form a distinct pattern that gives her away.
