Breaking down queen cells - Am I wrong?

[nematode]

A week ago (last Saturday) I inspected my hive and broke down a couple of play cups along the bottom but then I found one queen cup at the bottom of a frame which was charged with royal jelly. I could not see a larva in it but that does not necessarily mean there was not one present. I broke it down.

Yesterday (Saturday) I did another inspection and again found two play cups which I broke down. An again I found a queen cup with jelly in it, but this time it was in the area at the top of a frame. And again…..I broke it down.

Am I doing the completely wrong thing here? Is a single queen cell enough to make an AS from? I would really like some advise.

My bees are apis mellifera mellifera (Irish Black) and are in a standard national with 8 frames of brood, one stores and three un-drawn foundation. I have a super on which they have drawn out and filled about 4 frames of. The brood pattern looks good on the brood frames with plenty of larvae and sealed workers with some sealed drone at the bottom of a couple of the brood frames. There does not seem to be many drones in the colony at the moment and I notice they have dragged out dead and dying drones a couple of times over the last few weeks. The colony is recovering from a very heavy varroa infestation so that may be the cause of the self drone cull. I have a couple of strips of Apistan in the hive which seem to be working well and they are due to be removed on the 27th of this month.

 

[enrico]

One qc is enough for a swarm but I really wouldn't worry about the play cups, you could be there all day! Check every seven days and take out real qcells. If you miss one hey ho! There go some bees but at least you will get a new queen. I always make sure I see the queen before I remove the last qcell. What happens if she has already gone unbeknown to you and there you are tearing out the very thing you need!
E