Checking for queen cells while Apiguard on

[SunnyRaes]

Last Sunday I put the first tray of Apiguard on my hives, when I got to the last Hive I saw 3 loaded Queen cells ~ short of time before sunset I destroyed them & put the Apiguard on.
Now I have a conundrum! Do I leave the hive alone for a second week as suggested with the Apiguard & risk a very late swarm? or can I quickly check the hive this weekend & close up again without loosing the effectiveness of the Apiguard? (The Hive was made from an artificial swarm at the end of June. The new queen is a decent size & laying well & the bees are calm, so no sign of needing to supercede.)

 

[REDWOOD]

only the bees will know when the right time is for supercedure

 

[Tom Bick]

Where were the three loaded queen cells? Perhaps supersedure? Or emergency? They would be less likely to be swarm cells.

 

[SunnyRaes]

So would you just leave them to it & see what I have after 2 weeks with the apiguard? I'm just worried they are quite a small hive & so late in the season to get a new queen. They will not be big enough over the winter.

 

[Tom Bick]

I would be inspecting and wondering why they had queen cells.

You are best placed for deciding if they are to small to over winter, when you say quite small how many frames is that.

 

[SunnyRaes]

They'd be strong enough to over-winter if they continued with a queen, but if they replace this queen - for whatever reason - then that'll be a significant period without new brood at the worst time of the year, assuming a replacement queen even mates.

The existing queen is new (2013, red), large, laying well, and producing the calmest bees on the planet - so I want to preserve her as best I can.

So to go back to the actual question, would you be messing up the Apiguard treatment by inspecting (today)?

 

[drstitson]

"but if they replace this queen - for whatever reason - then that'll be a significant period without new brood at the worst time of the year, assuming a replacement queen even mates"

you need to go back to your books - that's not how supercedure works. The virgin and the old queen live happily together until newbie proves herself. so assuming HM is still laying well (but obviously not deemed "right" by the bees) then everything will be fine until newbie has had her "fun" with whatever drones are out there.

successful autumn supercedure is not uncommon - many open up in spring to find either 2 queens or a new one, having not been there at hive close down in autumn.

 

[SunnyRaes]

OK, in which case we'll leave till next week when we swap the Apiguard trays. There has been no Varroa drop on this hive anyway.

 

[Tom Bick]

Was the queen present when you removed the three charged queen cells?

The classic supersedure is new and old queen working together until the new queen has proven herself.......if only it was always that way. If the queen is sick and failing fast, she may have stopped laying now or even fallen off the perch.

To me you have to go in and try and understand why you had three charged queen cells.

The few minutes it will take will hardly affect the thymol treatments.

 

[MuswellMetro]

They'd be strong enough to over-winter if they continued with a queen, but if they replace this queen - for whatever reason - then that'll be a significant period without new brood at the worst time of the year, assuming a replacement queen even mates.

The existing queen is new (2013, red), large, laying well, and producing the calmest bees on the planet - so I want to preserve her as best I can.

So to go back to the actual question, would you be messing up the Apiguard treatment by inspecting (today)?

i have a yellow queen and a new queen in one hive, quite common with a supercecdure, all you have done is made it more likley the new queen is a drone layer, if they want to supecede they will, knocking down the QC is unlikley to stop them