MandF
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2009
- Messages
- 1,207
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- London, UK
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2
Hi all,
Something I have not come across previously; I performed an a/s several weeks back, and in the non-swarm hive there is a new queen who started laying 3-4 days ago now. I looked in a couple of days ago, to confirm she was laying, and saw a few charged queen cells, a couple with just egg, and a few in which it looked like they had abandoned the idea of swarming as the royal jelly was hard/dried out.
I was hoping they would settle down once she was laying properly.
I just looked in again to check this, and there was another swarm cell with egg, but aside from this it looks to me like they are charging most of the eggs she is laying with royal jelly. Now, at this stage I am assuming she mated ok, I am not sure if they would know/sense she wasnt mated and be trying to replace her?
Does anyone know what is going on here.. whether this is a transient phase, or if I do have a drone layer on my hands? It seems curious we have now (it would seem) a mix of swarm cells and emergency cells, and as I said, its not something I have seen before.
Thx
Mark
Something I have not come across previously; I performed an a/s several weeks back, and in the non-swarm hive there is a new queen who started laying 3-4 days ago now. I looked in a couple of days ago, to confirm she was laying, and saw a few charged queen cells, a couple with just egg, and a few in which it looked like they had abandoned the idea of swarming as the royal jelly was hard/dried out.
I was hoping they would settle down once she was laying properly.
I just looked in again to check this, and there was another swarm cell with egg, but aside from this it looks to me like they are charging most of the eggs she is laying with royal jelly. Now, at this stage I am assuming she mated ok, I am not sure if they would know/sense she wasnt mated and be trying to replace her?
Does anyone know what is going on here.. whether this is a transient phase, or if I do have a drone layer on my hands? It seems curious we have now (it would seem) a mix of swarm cells and emergency cells, and as I said, its not something I have seen before.
Thx
Mark