Grafting tomorrow … went down this evening to set up the Ben Harden box. Oh dear … looks like they've tried to swarm. Clipped queen so shouldn't be too far away. A few hundred bees clustered under the floor. Removed three heavy supers, went through the box. Removed the super frame with loads of brace comb, sliced the latter off and dropped the super frame by the edge of the hivestand. Sure enough, found a couple of capped queen cells. Also found two open charged ones, so knocked everything else back. No shortage of bees (actually it was packed) so reckon I'll use it to generate some queen cells after all … dumped the bees from under the floor back into the hive.
Set up the Ben Harden upper box. Disappeared off to the other end of the apiary and went through the colony I'll be grafting from. All good. Checked a couple of nucs and a bait hive (nada … looks like the queen in the latter hasn't returned from the mating flight. Damn).
Went to clear up and pack the car. Finally remember the super frame dropped by the hive stand. Went back for it. One bee walking around on it. The queen. Or at least, a queen
Not entirely sure she's the original as the wing didn't look clipped, but it was getting pretty dark by now.
Lifted her up to the landing board and she sauntered in calm as anything … good times.
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