# Queen bee on the ground



## Jeff (Jun 18, 2004)

encountered something I have never seen before, I saw a little cluster of bees on the ground and after investigating this I found a small queen. I left her alone because I thought she may be getting ready for her mating flight (this was about 4:30 pm). I left them for about 2 more hours and things hadn't changed so curiosity got the best of me! I picked the queen up and she was very small...I thought...and she was having trouble flying. She did not look deformed or damaged but she just couldn't fly. Maybe I should have left them alone but it was getting close to dark by this time.

Has anyone come across the same situation and do you have any ideas on what may have been going on here?

BTW - I had just put queen cells in about 10 days ago.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Could be a mating flight. Could be they threw her out as there were other virgins in the hive.


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

they say that a queen will mate something like 12 to 15 times so perhaps she is just exhausted?

have you perhaps been having any unusually high winds?


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## Jeff (Jun 18, 2004)

The last few days have been good weather so that shouldn't have been a factor. Just never have seen this before but that doesn't mean a whole lot either! at least with me.

Maybe I chalk it up to being more observant than usual.


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

actually I don't think what you witnessed as being that unusual. there could be any number of reasons as to what is happening. extreme weather conditions, a mating nucleus with little energy (stores), or the fact that queens do have the reputation for having a poor memory for finding their way back home.

I would suspect the more queens you rear the more of this you are likely to witness. I have seen small quantities of this myself.... folks that rear queens in number tell me that it is quite normal to see small groups of bees with a mated queen or virgin clinging to this or that around a mating yard.


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