Charged queen cells in top box of demaree after nearly 3 weeks.

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Jon.21

House Bee
Joined
Aug 13, 2021
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Location
Derby, UK
Hive Type
14x12
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4
Little bit confused on this one. On the 5th may I did a demaree. Queen in bottom box then queen excluder, 3 supers, queen excluder then top box (previously bottom box). After a week I went in and knocked down any queen cells in the top box. Since then each week I have inspected and found the marked queen in the bottom box. Today almost 3 weeks later I carry out another demaree on the same colony - I find the marked queen in the bottom box but as I was going through the top box frames before moving it to the bottom I noticed 3 charged queen cells on the front of the comb next to some sealed drone brood. They had plenty of royal jelly and a little larvae in each one. Went through the rest of the top box and no eggs anywhere. Just a few areas of remaining sealed brood.
Thoughts and how this could have occurred as the queen has been in the very bottom box the whole time ? Could the bees have moved eggs up from the bottom box through the queen excluders and supers into the top box ?
 
confused - what do you mean?

laying worker probably
Hi. Confused because I thought there was no chance of a queen cell after 7 days of doing the demaree as there would be nothing young enough for the bees to work with. I suppose laying worker is an option.
 
Hi. Confused because I thought there was no chance of a queen cell after 7 days of doing the demaree as there would be nothing young enough for the bees to work with. I suppose laying worker is an option.
no, I'm confused by what you mean when you say you did a second demaree on the same colony within weeks of the first.
 
Hi. Confused because I thought there was no chance of a queen cell after 7 days of doing the demaree as there would be nothing young enough for the bees to work with. I suppose laying worker is an option.
Ah I see. I normally do a rolling demaree swapping top and bottom boxes every 3 weeks.
 
I hope so, no sense in swapping the whole box
ah well I do in fact wait 3 weeks then swap the top and bottom boxes over leaving queen on frame with brood in the bottom box. Hence my surprise that after 3 weeks I get charged queen cells in the top box.
 

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