Last Friday I prepared a queenlessness nuc ready for some grafting. Grafted on Sunday with a 14/20 acceptance and then again yesterday morning.
When I checked on them yesterday eve. I had 0/20.
I checked the other frames to see if I'd missed some queen cells and noticed some eggs and then, there she was.... An apparently Amm queen, unmarked and unclipped (quite a pretty thing). The nuc was made up from a hive of Buckfast, so she stands out in colour and size.
Now I have a few similar looking queens that came with this years swarms, but they are all marked and clipped (I checked them all to be sure they were home).
Now I'd usually just presume I've made an error in records and manipulation, but I didn't have a queen in that condition to make the mistake with.
So, has a queen moved into the colony ? Is that even possible ?