Don't You Just Love Them

[Millet]

They must move eggs as there is no other possible reason why the Queen cell was in there and also brood the Queen cell was on the bottom bar just above the excluder, i wish i had my camera with me at the time i found it.

 

[Millet]

Checked them today and lone behold more Queen cells in the mother hive, the two nucs i made also had more Queen cells in them.
I did not want to bother the Nuc's but just aswell i did they now have one Queen cell each yet again.

I was a tad brutal with the mother hive though as i do not want that Queen, i made a third Nuc and left them with the Queen and one capped Queen cell and one frame of brood the rest is just stores and fresh undrawn comb, i left the Queen cell incase of supercedure and if she does swarm i will find her and do what needs doing (clipped Queen), all these nucs will be Re Queened when i can get hold of some decent mated Queens as these are more swarmy than my old mongrels.
More funny pipping noises today also.

 

[Eyeman]

Could the workers have moved some eggs through the excluder as the Queen is definitely too big to fit through herself , i marked and clipped her a couple of weeks ago in a slotted marking tube, the workers cleared from the tube easily but for all the Queen tried to get out she could not get through.

I split a doxen or so 5x5 over-wintered double nucs a month ago and sold the Q+ half and left the Q- half to raise it's own queen with a view to re-queen then when mine are available. All were checked for any early queen cells including any eggs/larvae in queen cups. When I went back in to the Q- half a week later to reduce the number of queen cells I saw some typical looking 'swarm cells' attach to the bottom bar where a queen cup must have been. There were other emergency QC's elsewhere.
I thought that the workers must have moved some eggs to those quuen cups to raise those 'swarm cells'? There is the possibility that I missed those eggs in those cups when I did the split.

 

[mickbees23]

The queen slipping through the excluder, is she a local North East mongrel ?
If so its quite regular in my experience. These tend to be darker and smaller queens which I think are adapted to our local environment. They do swarm nearly every year. Mine often slip into the super and lay 2 or 3 patches in the centre frames but then always go back into the brood box and continue as normal. Thing is you must always check the middle of the first super for brood and in particular queen cells rather than just expect it to contain honey. I have on several occasions inspected the brood boxes and found no queen cells but then found them in a middle frame in the first super.


Don't get caught out.


Cheers, Mick.

 

[Millet]

The queen slipping through the excluder, is she a local North East mongrel ?
If so its quite regular in my experience. These tend to be darker and smaller queens which I think are adapted to our local environment. They do swarm nearly every year. Mine often slip into the super and lay 2 or 3 patches in the centre frames but then always go back into the brood box and continue as normal. Thing is you must always check the middle of the first super for brood and in particular queen cells rather than just expect it to contain honey. I have on several occasions inspected the brood boxes and found no queen cells but then found them in a middle frame in the first super.


Don't get caught out.


Cheers, Mick.

Hello Mick the Queen is a open mated Romanian Buckfast and she is not that small, she is roughly the same size as the other Queens that have no brood in there supers, with them being open mated it is a bit of a gamble with these Queens, some are none swarmy some are a touch feisty and some are nice.