Oops. May have lost my queen.

[josbees]

I've got my first two hives up and running.  Or at least one of them is.  The second is giving me palpitations.  First of all, a week after I installed the package I did my first inspection only to find my queen dead in her cage.  Got a new queen and put the cage in the hive.  Today, 9 days later I went in to see how things were going.  Immediately noticed that the candy was gone from the cage.  I pulled the cage out and saw a few girls bopping around in there and put it beside the entrance.  Then checked my frames and saw good number of  what I think is brood and pretty sure I saw eggs, but didn't see the queen.  I wasn't too worried coz I figured eggs equals queen.  Put everything back together, feeder and cover on top.  REmembered the cage and went to make sure the girls in there had found their way out.  Gobsmacked to realize that one of them was the queen!  Trying not to panic, held my finger over the candy hole and dismantled the hive again, clumsily and pissing off a bunch of the girls.  Queen is running around in the cage with some workers so I give it a good shake but no-one wants to get out.  Got my hive tool and pulled back the wire then shook it again over the hive.  I know.  I should have gently picked Queenie up and deposited her safely.  I didn't see "her" go in and there were so many flying around that I can't hoensly be sure if she made it.    So.  I will go in tomorrow and look for her thoroughly.  Anyone out there have any advice?  If she didn't go in,  would she hang around the hive?   Should I think about getting yet another queen?  I feel so bad about this.....

[Kathyp]

she probably went in the hive.

  since you know she had been released, you could have just laid the cage back in there and she would have crawled out again...i know, it's hard to think rationally when you are hit with something new  :-)  just something to remember in case it happens again.

if it were me, i would not buy a new queen.  i would watch for queen cells.  since you have plenty of eggs and brood, they can make a new queen.  if you see queen cells and do not want to wait for a new queen, you could consider ordering one then.  as early as it is, i would let then raise their own. i hate to spend money when i don't have to!

[josbees]

Duh.  Yes, I know -- Believe me, I have second guessed myself to pieces in the hour since I did it.  And I know I'm going to be waking up all night worrying.  It's like she's one of my kids, but worse, since at least I know where they are!! (well, more or less....)

Thanks for being sensible for me!