>So when I opened the box up to check the brood frame, what was the first thing I saw on it? My marked queen. Laying eggs in the comb, which the bees had re-drawn out beyond my cut-outs to fill the frame almost completely. All sign of my previous day-old larvae was gone.
Usually they don't bother going through an excluder, but smoke will often drive them through one.
>This queen is an odd one. I got her with a package last year, and she is long and slim, not plump at all. I guess I should have figured she'd be able to move through the excluder when she wanted to. But she's been a prolific queen; that first-year hive gave me 55 lbs of honey last August. And it wintered well with and is now at 2 boxes full of bees, which is why I chose to use it for my finishing hive.
So try a QUENLESS starter finisher and you won't have this proboem. :)
>All the best laid plans . . .
But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley --Robert Burns excerpt from "To a Mouse"
And of beekeepers...