Bit of advice please.

[Matt77]

Afternoon all. Just been through my colonies, in one of them I found 2 charged queen cups on the very edge of the brood nest. The colony is a little smaller than my others it has 6 frames of brood vs my other 3 at 8-9 frames of brood.

My first thought was to AS them but then it struck me it could be supercedure, so I found the queen, marked her & closed them up until I decide what to do with them tomorrow. My thinking now is perhaps stick the queen in a nuc & leave em all to it. At least I'll still have a queen if it all goes belly up.

What do you lot think?

Thanks in advance.

 

[beeno]

Hi Matt,
If she is still laying eggs, I would tear the cells down, make sure she has enough room to lay by taking some stores out as long as there are two frames of stores and replace with drawn comb. Perhaps also put a super on if you are on a flow which I am at the moment - black thorne. There is a cold spell coming up, so hopefully they will change their minds. Although I have drones flying today it is a bit early to expect successful mating weather me thinks.

 

[Matt77]

Hi Beeno, yes the successful mating is my concern too. They have a super on(oilseed rape in full bloom) I'd not considered taking the cells down etc. But as you say with the cold snap approaching it could be worth a try I guess.

 

[masterBK]

Drones have been produced quite early this year so as long as weather OK in a couple of weeks time I don't think mating will be a problem for the supersedure queen. Drones are sexually mature about 12 to 14 days after emergence. I found a single supersedure cell (about two days off sealing) in one of my colonies today (queen is 3 yrs old but laying on 8 frames) so I have left them to get on with it.