Charged Queen Cells

[Nbw]

Hi all
My over wintered colony is very strong and I have found 3 CQC.
Brood is 8+ frames.

I took the QCs down but I was unable to find the queen. To be honest. I always struggle to find the queen. Spending nearly an hour I couldn't find the queen. Shook the frames for a final review of the frames to ensure I found the QC

I have a single colony but have 2 hives (1 spare). They are single brood box hives and I was going to add a second brood box to the hive to give the colony some space and perform a split later this year.

Is this a good strategy?

Thanks
Nick

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you have Queen cells and cannot find the queen, good chance they have already swarmed, just hope you still have some young open brood left.

 

[Murox]

As you have already found Q-cells they will probably swarm when they have rebuilt some more. Destroying Q-cells is not swarm control, it will simply buy you a little time . Suggest you perform a Pagden artificial swarm or use a Nuc for swarm control now.

Just seen post from JBM - I hope he is wrong about swarming

 

[Nbw]

If you have Queen cells and cannot find the queen, good chance they have already swarmed, just hope you still have some young open brood left.

With the number of bees in the hive, i doubt very much they have swarmed yet

 

[Nbw]

As you have already found Q-cells they will probably swarm when they have rebuilt some more. Destroying Q-cells is not swarm control, it will simply buy you a little time . Suggest you perform a Pagden artificial swarm or use a Nuc for swarm control now.

Just seen post from JBM - I hope he is wrong about swarming

Thank you for the reply

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

With the number of bees in the hive, i doubt very much they have swarmed yet

A mistake that many make. Within a few hours of the swarm leaving, newly emerging brood and returning forages and a proportion of the original swarmers who return means that the percieved numbers in the hive look no different.

 

[Nbw]

A mistake that many make. Within a few hours of the swarm leaving, newly emerging brood and returning forages and a proportion of the original swarmers who return means that the percieved numbers in the hive look no different.

Interesting, i have never thought of that

 

[drex]

Before ever destroying QC's, you need to ascertain what is going on. Is the queen still there? Are there eggs and larvae,? the age of which will tell you when she last laid.
Worst case scenario is you take down queen cells, queen already gone, no eggs or young larvae. No chance of making new queen. Doomed. There is a good booklet by Wally Shaw on Welsh Bka called something like " there are queen cells in my hive". Explains really well the process to go through before squashing cells

 

[North End Bees]

If the QCs were charged but not sealed there's a good chance the queen is still there.

If you can't see her I would split the colony between the two brood boxes. One will contain the Q, the other will make QCs (unless it was supersedure in which case they'll both make QCs!) Check in a couple of days to see which half (if either) has eggs.

Be aware that if you knock down QCs repeatedly they will often swarm on open QCs (i.e giving you almost no notice!)