Capped QC no longer capped and with grub!

[GreenaGiant]

Hi all

Took a Nuc home on Tuesday to setup my first hive of my own (we have 3 at work which I've been helping out with, one of which I took the 5 frame nuc from with a good amount of capped brood). The nuc had a capped queen cell and everything was transferred to my new hive Tuesday night (2 days ago).

I've just had a quick look in this lunchtime to check on progress; I am about a mile from the work apiary so expecting to lose a lot of flying bees. They seem to be doing rather well actually.

However.....the queen cell is no longer capped and there is a reasonable sized grub in there.

Thoughts?

My shortlist in order of likelihood in my beginners mind:
1. Queen died in transit and they moved a grub in there as an emergency
2. Queen hatched and I missed her on the inspection or was out mating and they've re-charged it to prepare for a cast

Cheers

Simon

 

[enrico]

It's a different queen cell?

 

[madasafish]

Did you mark the frame with the QC?

 

[GreenaGiant]

It is the same queen cell.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

You bashed the queencell or it was stuck to the next frame along and the cap is attached to that.
When was the queen due to emerge?

 

[GreenaGiant]

Hi,

No there is no capping anywhere to be seen on adjacent frames but it is a fully made cell which was capped two days ago.

Is it possible that it got a jolt in the car which perhaps killed the queen and they dragged out the corpse and replaced it with a grub? This is my feeling.

There was no charged QC in the original hive last Tuesday (22nd), checking the records. It was sealed by the next inspection this Tuesday (29th). Don't know the exact date it was sealed.

 

[madasafish]

Hi,

No there is no capping anywhere to be seen on adjacent frames but it is a fully made cell which was capped two days ago.

Is it possible that it got a jolt in the car which perhaps killed the queen and they dragged out the corpse and replaced it with a grub? This is my feeling.

There was no charged QC in the original hive last Tuesday (22nd), checking the records. It was sealed by the next inspection this Tuesday (29th). Don't know the exact date it was sealed.

That sounds highly unlikely given the timing of queen rearing.

 

[GreenaGiant]

Understood but that is what we saw.

We had a bee inspector with us as we do every week assisting with our inspections too so I am quite confident the above is accurate.

 

[Beefriendly]

You need to spend your time figuring how your are going to re-queen. Sh$%t happens. No point wasting more time pondering what might have happened. And it is very very unlikely they added a grub to a queen cell. More likely it got damaged in transit and the grub you saw was the queen larvae that was already inside.

 

[jeff33]

I will second Beefriendly. If you are only a mile away from work bring a frame of really young brood back and put it in the nuc for them to raise a new one if they can't do it with what they have. Wrap it in a warm damp cloth.

 

[beeno]

More likely that the grub was the old larva and is no longer viable, so the bees have uncapped the cell to get rid of it. That's what bees do.

 

[Beefriendly]

I will second Beefriendly..

Appreciated Jeff...I think that puts you in a minority of about 2 on this forum.

 

[GreenaGiant]

Cheers guys.

I'll give it a go and see how they get on.

There were 6 charged QCs in there today plus the one outstanding which still looks healthy