A Hive Divided

Sasha hive with queen
excluders separating each box.

A hive that has been queenless for at least 24 hours has a better chance of accepting a new queen so, with the new Russian queens arriving tomorrow I planned on removing the current Sasha queen today. Finding the queen, even one that is unmarked, has never been a problem for me... until today, that is.

After the wonderful experience with the newly emerged queen two weeks ago, she should have mated and been laying by now. But not only did I not find her, but there is no brood in the hive either, and I checked it over carefully - two times - even checking the inside walls of the boxes. The bees were loosing their patience with me by then so I put a queen excluder between each box and closed it up. I figured this will make it easier to finder her in the morning in case those new legs of hers helped her to scoot between boxes.

This got me wondering what are the other methods commonly used to find the queen when you want to replace her. The following are the most common methods I found:

Go to the Center of the Hive

1. Space the frames apart in the middle of the brood box.
2. Carefully lift one frame out of the middle. 
3. Briefly scan over each side of this frame (like reading, taking about a minute).  
4. Place this frame in a spare box and continue with the next frame, working your way towards the outside of the box. 

The queen may be seen on the wall of the hive body or on the bottom board.  The center
of the brood nest on a frame with eggs is the most likely place to find her.  Speed is an
advantage because the queen can hide well.  Once you have found her, shake
bees off combs, manipulate combs, lift honey out to top and replace with empty brood combs and introduce queen cage.

Go to the Outside of the Hive

1. Place an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Remove the outside frame furthest from you, check for the queen, and place in the empty box. 
3. Remove the frame closest to you, again checking for the queen before placing in the spare box.  While it is not usual to find the queen on the outside frames, it can happen.  By removing these frames first from the hive it will create a light barrier between the next frame and the hive wall.  This will confine the queen to the remaining frames. 
4. Before checking both sides of the frame closest to you, glance down the face of the frame.  Often, the queen stands out taller than the other bees and can be more easily spotted on the face of the frame before it is removed.  Repeat for remaining frames until the queen is found. 

Divide and Conquer 

1. Put an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Take out half the frames and place them in the empty box.  
3. Place in each of the two boxes empty combs to make up the space where frames are missing. 
4. This gives you 4 frames of bees and brood and 4 frames of pollen/honey/empty combs in each box. 
5. The next day one of the hives will have fanning bees at the entrance.  She will now be easier to find because you know which box she is in and only have half the number of bees to search. 

Drift Method 
Suitable for apiaries with pairs or rows of hives.

1. Move hive to a new position behind a landmark and turn entrance 180 degrees. This will cause all the field bees to return to the hive next door.  Usually this is OK under good conditions. 
2. The next day, or even a few hours later, you only have nurse bees and the queen bee left in the hive on the brood frames. This will give you the edge in finding the queen. 

Divide and Divide Again 

1. Place an empty hive box next to the hive. 
2. Use the Go to the Outside of the Hive method first. 
3. Place 4 frames in each box with bees adhering then pair up frames by pushing them together.  This should make the bees and the queen go between either two frames where it is darker. 
4. After 10 minutes, look for the queen and remember to look on the walls and floor as well.

The Last Resort 

This one is a last resort and will absolutely remove the queen.  It is a good method to use on a drone layer or an overly aggressive hive. 

1. Move the whole hive 10-20 yards or more, behind landmarks preferably. This will cause the bees to drift back to their original position. 
2. Shake all of the bees off the comb onto the ground and place all frames into a new hive body which is elevated on a table.  This ensures that the queen cannot re-enter the hive. 
3. Return the brood box to the original spot to collect all returning field bees. The queen will not be able to fly back. 
4. Check 7 days later for queen cells, knock them off and introduce caged queen.