strangest thing yet.

[10framer]

i got to the farm about 45 minutes before dark and checked my queen cells to see how many took.  2 out of 14 and it doesn't look like they even tried to start the rest.
this made me decide to check the split i pulled from this cell starter hive to make sure i had the queen.  went through and didn't find her.
when i looked down she was on my boot with no workers around her.  i guess she fell off of a frame and luckily landed there. 

[RHBee]

Pretty bazaar Rob. Yet another possible location for the queen. :-D Just how did you happen to notice her on your boot?

[10framer]

i looked down and she was hard to miss.  i may have been resting the end bar of the frame on my toes at some point or something.  it just seemed odd.

[GSF]

Did you buy a lottery ticket afterwards?  :-D

[10framer]

gary, after i found out that only 2 out of 14 grafts took i wasn't feeling too lucky.  i kind of rushed that.  i made the split and only left the finisher queenless for about an hour before i put the cells in. 

[BeeMaster2]

Rob,
I had the same problem this past spring. I am pretty sure the problem was that I did not add in enough nurse bees to the nuc by shaking in a couple more frames of bees from brood frames.
Jim

[10framer]

jim, i actually used the full hive for the cells this time.  i think i should have left them queenless longer but i was pressed for time.  not a big deal but the next round will be for fall splits so it needs to go better.

[BeeMaster2]

jim, i actually used the full hive for the cells this time.  i think i should have left them queenless longer but i was pressed for time.  not a big deal but the next round will be for fall splits so it needs to go better.

Yes I did the same thing also, not queen less long enough.
Jim

[JasonP]

Same thing happend to me a little while back, didn't find the queen on my inspection. After puting the hive back together I started to walk away and blow me down there was the queen with a few friends sitting there on the grass! I had almost steped on her! Scooped her up with my hive tool and let her crawl in to the entrance. How that happened i don't know but I hope it dosn't happen again.