New Queen?

This week the Tree Bumble Bee in Hive1 wasn't the only unexpected Queen I found. Looking in Hive2 which is currently being affected by chalkbrood I couldn't see the red marked queen at all. What I did find was an unmarked queen near the middle of the hive. Whilst it's not impossible for the red paint to have come off there wasn't even a trace of the stuff on her.

A new Queen?

My conclusion is that the bees have managed to sneak a new queen past me and superceded the red marked queen. If the hive has issued a swarm it must've been a very small one as there wasn't noticeably any less bees than previously.

Capturing her in a clip I moved her into the marking tube, mixed up some green acrylic paint and popped a dot on her back then returned her back in the hive. Workers quickly clustered around her and I really hope they didn't mistake her for a stranger and decide to kill her -it can happen.. If she is a new Queen then she must be very young and so may not have even mated yet so I left her wings unclipped in case she still needs to make a mating flight.

Sporting a bit of green paint