BUT WHERE IS "SHE"?
It's not your car parked on a hypermarket parking lot, of course, any more than the lost key somewhere either, for that matter. Who then? Obviously, given the context of the
you have guessed it: this is the queen while you are holding a frame in front of you above the hive.
And if I told you she's not where you think she is, I'd probably surprise you a lot. I have a somewhat peculiar conception of the matter, and I propose to talk to you about it.
The search for the queen presents a great similarity with the search for a lost object.
If, for example, I asked you to help me find a key that I have lost, the first question you would ask me would be:
" What is she like ? ".
I would make a description as precise as possible and you would then make a mental image that you would confront the different objects that you will see during the search. And if by chance you find it, then there will be almost perfect match between the object and the image that you made it.
Hence the corollary: you will find (easily) the queen only if you have already seen one - many would be even better - and that if you can make a mental picture.
Hence, finally, the answer to the question "But where is it? : It's in your head !!
The mental approach
Once the image of the queen is visually established in your head, it will have to be confronted with what you have before the eyes, on the frame, that is to say hundreds of bees, and which move in addition !
Hence the need to smoke little so as not to panic. It will be necessary to go through the frame of the look until the queen (admit that it is on the frame that you have before the eyes) coincides with the image that is in your head, image that you must strive to literally see and not lose sight of.
But you also can not "take all your time": the hive should not remain open too long (risk of cooling at the beginning of the season, risk of looting later). Thirty seconds per frame face make a total of ten minutes for a Dadant 10 frames.
What is too much!
It will therefore be necessary to "scan" the framework, in the primary sense of the term. The term "scanning" appeared in the field of British aviation during the Second World War. It indicated an automatic mode of operation of certain aerial surveillance radars whose mission was to protect the south of England and especially the capital London from the attacks of the German aviation at first and then especially of the V1 and V2 by the after.
They had in memory the determined form of these enemy planes. The principle: first the locating antenna sweeps a certain portion of the space, then it stops on the target sought: the enemy plane, to the exclusion of any other.
Putting this into practice mentally is not very difficult. It is quickly productive if practiced regularly. It will be inoperative if practiced on a hive once a year!
It is also possible to train because it is the same approach as practiced in the methods of learning of fast reading. The purpose of reading then is not to read everything but to look for information that you know to be on the document (a date, a percentage, a phone number, a definition, which marked the purpose ... what do I know ?).
It is a productive reading and not a pleasure reading.
How to train? Take a book (a novel goes very well) and open it at random. Choose a word somewhere on the page (let's say "storm"), mark that word on a sheet with next to the page number (page 12).
Do so for about forty words with sites on the page as varied as possible. Then a few days later, after you've forgotten the pitches, train yourself. Give yourself 10 seconds to find the word "storm" on page 12, without reading the page, simply by "scanning" and having the word written in your head. And so on for the other words.
Compared to the queen's search, there are two notable advantages: words, unlike bees, do not move and do not sting.
As for you, I hope that I ... piqued your curiosity and that you ... will piquert the game!
The different research techniques
Whatever the technique used, it will of course be necessary to apply the mental approach described above.
1 - Framework research
This is the easiest method to implement; it is also the fastest and least disturbing for the colony. Use as little smoke as possible. After a very light smoke at the entrance of the hive, remove the cover and take a quick look for the case (very rare) where the queen would be there. Remove the edge radius. In general it contains no brood. Do not examine it, or a very quick examination will allow you to verify that the queen is not there, and place it against the hive outside, standing in the roof overturned for example, or better, suspended at a frame-holder attached to the side of the hive, or in an empty hive. Remove the second frame and examine it carefully. If the queen is not there, replace it in the hive at an angle: the bottom of the frame in its housing, the top on the upper part of the rack between the housing of frames 1 and 2.
Continue thus until the discovery of the queen on one of the frames. During visit, smoke very lightly if necessary, smoke grazing on top of the frames. Once the queen is found, repositioning takes only a few seconds: simply reposition the head of each frame in its housing and put the first frame back in place.
This technique is all the easier and successful because the colony is not very populous, which is the case during the spring visit (ideal period for this operation) or during the production of swarms in hives.
Some tips:
- Search for the queen at the time of foraging; the absence of many foragers makes the operation easier.
- Observe more closely the open brood frames, and especially those where there are freshly laid eggs. The queen is found there much more often, especially if one operates quickly, otherwise it moves away from the light and one can then find it a little anywhere.
- Observe the frames back to the sun.
- In case of failure or in anticipation, an empty frame can be placed in the brood nest (not to be done early in the season however: risk of cooling of the brood or even abandonment of a part of it) or on the edge of the brood nest, and do the research forty-eight hours later. By examining this framework first (of necessity to place a marker on it), one has a very good chance of finding the queen in the process of laying.
- In case of a heavily populated hive it is possible to move the hive a few meters and replace it with an empty hive in which an open brood frame without bees (to be sure not to put the queen! the hive moved. This is to be done in the morning. The foragers will return to their original location and take the brood in charge. A few hours later (afternoon), the research in the displaced hive will be done under excellent conditions: less population, young bees not aggressive and calm. Then, once the queen is found, reconstitute the hive and put it back in its place.
2 - Research on smoke
It requires material: an increase with 4 or 5 empty frames unassembled empty (an empty space between each) and a grid with queen.
After a light smoke at the entrance, remove the frame cover and place the empty hoof on the hive body. Replace the cover. Burn the hive by the entrance for more than a minute. A good part of the population, accompanied by the queen, then regrouped in the rise on the empty frames. Lift up and slide the grid to queen on the hive body and rest the rising. Remove the cover and, while smoking very lightly for a few minutes, lower the bees. Shake the frames to remove them and continue the light smoke, more to guide the bees than to constrain them. After a few minutes, the queen will be easy to spot among some remaining bees and false drones.
Tip: For having tried this method, not very often it is true, I must admit that it does not work with every stroke. On the other hand, patting the walls of the hive while smoking greatly increases the success rate and accelerates the rise of the queen and bees.
3 - The search to the queen grid
It also requires material: an empty hive, an empty hill (which will serve as a funnel), a queen grid.
Lightly hume the hive and move it one meter to the side. Replace it with the empty hive. Take a frame or two of brood (preferably open) in the hive (shake the bees of course not to take the queen!) And put it in the empty hive. They will attract the bees. Place the grid at the top and then the empty grid. Then take the frames one by one and shake them in the empty hoop. Shake also the bees that will remain in the hive, very often a large number. Then lower the bees by moderate smoke, using the bee brush to guide them. As in the previous method, we find the queen on the grid. At the end of the operation, reconstitute the hive and put it back in its place. Ensure the order of brood frames.
This method makes it possible to find the queen for sure. On the other hand it is somewhat "violent", disrupts much the colony and can cause a certain effervescence to the apiary. For that it is rather to advocate at the end of the day and in ... last resort.
A few comments
- A queen falling to the ground is likely to be lost: inability to fly, difficulty to be found, and all the stronger the grass will be high, runs the risk of being trampled.
- A queen who flies away has a good chance of returning to her hive, all the more so because the hive will remain open and you will not stir.
- A young queen, and a fortiori if she is not fertilized, tends to fly very easily.
- A young queen, and a fortiori a virgin queen, is more difficult to find.
- A virgin queen is smaller (smaller abdomen) than a laying queen, hence more difficult to spot among the workers, and more lively too. She flees quickly to hide and leaves the area of the brood very easily, forcing to review the entire hive. To look for a virgin queen in a strong colony comes back a little to look for a needle in a bundle of straw. Besides, if you suppose that there is a virgin queen (following a natural remedy or swarming), it may be as well that the hive is orphaned. In which case you waste your time because there is no needle in the bale of straw!
If you are able to find the queen by examining the frame in a colony frame (and to mark it, which will be the subject of a next article) you will then be able to claim you beekeeper and not simple bee owner .
Indeed, this capacity requires the skills and know-how that gives you this title:
- Smoke control;
- Examination of a colony without apprehension, without gloves;
- The ability to observe (many are looking but do not see, or nothing);
- Self-control (especially when seizing the queen and marking her);
- Finally you will have marked queens, which will allow you to drive your apiary and not let you drive.