1 or 2 ?

[MrB]

after re hiving a swarm a week ago the remaining bees in the original hive had several q cells, all sealed ones were removed and 1 unsealed one left.
today there were several more. i have now removed all but 2 sealed ones, one of which looks quite ripe, is this ok or should i leave them with just the one?
will 2 cause a cast to leave?

Thanks,

 

[djg]

I removed 2 sealed QCs last weekend to introduce a frame of eggs/unsealed brood from a good Q colony to a Q- nuc. On further inspection, one of those QCs was hollow.

In your position, removing one of the two QCs could be like Russian roulette, unless you are confident that you know which one was u/sealed after hiving the swarm and that it had all the ingredients to come to fruition.

If I was confident about that one QC's viability, then I would accept the odds and take off the other one.

Good luck !

 

[susbees]

If they're on the bottom of a frame there could be chilling issues...I had a pair on the bottom of a carefully transferred frame in a nuc with what seemed like plenty bees. They both may have chilled....bees knew best and built a beautiful single emergency cell mid-frame. Hopefully hatching about now.

You can candle QCs like hens' eggs with a strong focussed small torch. Useful for putting ripe cells in mating nucs etc.....but also possibly for viability issues.

The theory behind two capped QCs left is it allows for a dud or the first hatched will take down the other one.

Using a drawing pin to mark side and position of kept cells is vital for me at least.

 

[MrB]

The theory behind two capped QCs left is it allows for a dud or the first hatched will take down the other one.

but is there likely to be a cast?

 

[oliver90owner]

Probably not, but who can tell? Nobody can!

This year just doesn't seem to be 'normal' for a lot of beeks. Mine are behaving at the mo, but I am expecting some queen cells in a couple colonies shortly. Split one colony and A/Sed another. Hopefully they will all wait until the OSR has gone, then I will make a few nucs. Several queens need changing.

Personally, I would risk the cast rather than be queenless for another month or more (if not buying in and you have no queen cells available).

Regards, RAB

 

[DanBee]

Best course of action by far is to leave just one open queen cell, so you can see it's a good 'un. Did you mark the frame when you did this first time round, can you tell which one it is now?

Leaving 2 is too risky. If the colony throws a cast then what remains will be diminished further still. If you retain the later queen cells, you risk them being poorer quality queens due to late conversion.

Your ID panel at the left says you have 3 colonies. I'd recommend you leave the one best looking queen cell, ideally the first one you chose - candle it for confidence - and be prepared to pop in a frame of eggs if for some reason she fails to emerge.

 

[MrB]

Did you mark the frame when you did this first time round, can you tell which one it is now?

yes i did but today it looked damaged (it was on the bottom of the frame) so it was one i removed. the 2 i have left look better options.

Personally, I would risk the cast rather than be queenless for another month or more (if not buying in and you have no queen cells available).
Regards, RAB

that,s the way i am tempted to go

 

[MrB]

UPDATE

Looked in the hive today and think i have seen a virgin Q, she was walking around the comb piping. (assume she is still a virgin as no eggs present and she is still small ish!)
there is still a sealed Q cell on a frame,(or possibly re sealed!) question is, what to do with the other cell?
I am tempted to leave it as there are no eggs yet. is it better to have that insurance?
What would you do??

Thanks

 

[northernsoul]

To be honest in my view there is no simple answer. In the words of Clint Eastwood 'how lucky do you feel Punk?'

I've had single cells that didn't make it and subsequent casts from leaving more than one cell.

Toss a coin though If you think you've seen a queen I think that's your answer.

PS What are you doing looking through your hive so soon anyway. From a sealed cell I don't think you should look for 3 weeks for fear of disrupting mating flights etc

 

[mandabow]

make a muni nuc with a couple of cups of nursebees.. Then both queens have a chance of mating... If you loose one to a bird you'll be pleased you did, if both mate then pick one to keep based on laying, temprement of offsping etc rather than an arbritrary cell looks big/ripe.. I'd choose older of the cells, as new swarmcell will be from older larvae if they were made after initials were torn down assuming this was after swarm