Help I’ve got a sealed queen cell!

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LauraB

New Bee
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
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Location
Preston
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
2
Whilst I was doing my inspection yesterday, lovely sunny and warm day so I thought I’d make sure they’ve still got enough stores, I found a lovely sealed QC!! Nicely next to the side bar rather than from the top bar frame!!

Is this a supersedure QC? The current Q was this year’s from a AS, seemed to be doing well but I haven’t seen her for ages (didn’t mark her the 1st time I saw her – mistake!) but I did see eggs during this inspection, but I don’t know whether I’ve a drone layer, as I've got sporadic brood (what i would expect i think this time of year) but none of it domed drone brood.

If it is a supersedure QC what happens to the current Q – will I lose a swarm? And how does the ‘new’ Q get mated? Do mother and daughter live side by side happily?

My mentor has advised to leave it as be and add another super on if they're chocked full with no room to spread all the current flow out (and they do seem to be still very busy)

Thanks in advance!
 
Supercedure, usually they kill the failing queen and the new one takes over. From what I have read (I am a newbee too) if the cell is on the face of a frame it is a supercedure cell - and if it is on the bottom edge it is a swarm cell.

Have they got enough room? Here the ivy flow is heavy and if they have filled HMs laying space with honey they might make a swarm cell, although I would have thought it too late in the year. Someone did collect a swarm the other day though.

Otherwise supercudure...how was the attitude when you went in? Also, a more experienced beek will probably want to know how much brood/stores etc you have...
 
the cell is on the edge but still on the face of the frame - so a more experience person would know straight away, however it did look like a swarm cell. But they haven't swarmed as far as i can tell, normally they would as soon as cell sealed (wouldn't they?) as there was alot of bees in there and weren't particularly bothered about me (until he squashed one!)

I've added another super on with a few drawn out frames in as they seem really busy (especially with this weather) so might fill them up.

but how does she get mated?
 
There is no guarantee that a queen cell is a certain place is a swarm or supercedure cell. Late Supercedure can result in two laying queens int he hive (although not seen by me) so there must be something to tell the bees not to swarm this late int he year. I have a few drones in a couple of hives so it's not too late just yet for mating (but getting close).

A marked queen would mean thay you can identify mother or daughter - can you get her marked if you are going to leave the queencell in?
 
There must be something to tell them that swarming now is a bad idea, but with this lot they def haven't read the same books!!

There are still quite a few drones in both my hives so I'll just have to keep my fingers that everything goes well with her mating and maybe i'll have 2Qs in there. If i see Q1 then i'll get her marked but i've failed to see her for about 2 months.
 
Seeing eggs is no bad thing. I would say a swarm is very unlikely, but nevertheless a possibility. If the bees swarm with the old queen it will probably be a small one that you won't know has left.

If they were my bees I would leave the queen cell alone. It might even get torn down. There is a point with bees that I think you have to leave them to it and hope that they know what they are doing.
 
I'm going to leave the cell well alone, if they built it because there was a no space then hopefully adding this super with drawn frames will do them some good .... i'll just have to learn to let them get on with it, that they know best!
 
If nothing or little end up being put in the super, I would be inclined to remove it for the winter.
 
the weather is amazing at the moment and it looks like they're still bringing stores in so they might fill some of it up, prob take it off and extract to feed back to them april ish
 
think its HB as they're still completely covered head 2 toe in white pollen!
 
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