help please what do i do

[alan42]

To cut a long story short i ended up with a queenless hive so put a test frame in. Today i see there are 7 lovely queen cells all sealed up my question is should i leave alone ? should i cut out the 6 cells and leave only one ? will they swarm with the other queens ? ( not a strong hive so dont want it to swarm) your advice would be much appreciated.
thanks
alan

 

[Otleybee]

I was in a similar position earlier this year. Being a nervous newbie I could not bring myself to leave just one cell so I left two. I then lost a cast swarm the following week. So although it feels risky I would reduce to just one.

 

[Skyhook]

I was in a similar position earlier this year. Being a nervous newbie I could not bring myself to leave just one cell so I left two. I then lost a cast swarm the following week. So although it feels risky I would reduce to just one.

And, if they're sealed, I would do it ASAP.

 

[Friar Tuck]

only leave 1. the biggest and best. IMO

 

[djg]

alan42,

At least you have two Q+ hives to fall back on to get the hive right for over-wintering, if your single selected cell/Q fails for any reason. It would have been easier of there was an unsealed QC awash with royal jelly - at least you could have selected that one, knowing what it contained for sure.

So I would reduce to a single cell, since I had the same experience as Otleybee last year, having assumed that the first emerged virgin Q would kill the others. Wrong.

I hope that the other hives have some honey for you, since it may be a stretch to get the new Q mated, laying and foragers up before they build up their own winter stores in the currently Q- hive, even if all goes according to plan.

Good luck!

 

[oliver90owner]

At least you have two Q+ hives to fall back on to get the hive right for over-wintering, if your single selected cell/Q fails for any reason.

A useful piece of information! Where did that come from?

At this time of the season I would likely want to be sure of a decent queen, not an emergency queen from a weak colony, especially if I were only to have the one colony (as per the OPs profile) and it will likely be the end of July before there are any new bees.

Weak hives don't normally swarm on emergency cells but I would not risk half a dozen.

RAB

 

[alan42]

not worried about honey this year more concerned with expanding my hives from one to three if possible, thinking of cutting a qu cell out and taking a couple of frames from strong hive and creating a nuke but am i to late to get strong hives for the winter ?

 

[Poly Hive]

You say this colony is not very strong and no you want to depelte it even further.

I would think of that line of thinking as being a bit greedy.

PH

 

[alan42]

please read my reply properly i stated from a strong hive, only thing with these forums people dont read things properly and then jump on people or start calling them greedy and such when the fault lies in not reading things properly.
and we wounder why people dont post things.
thanks for your totaly unhepfull reply ever heard of the saying if you got nothing sensible to say then say nowt.
to the rest of you many many thanks for the advise.

 

[Poly Hive]

To cut a long story short i ended up with a queenless hive so put a test frame in. Today i see there are 7 lovely queen cells all sealed up my question is should i leave alone ? should i cut out the 6 cells and leave only one ? will they swarm with the other queens ? ( not a strong hive so dont want it to swarm) your advice would be much appreciated.
thanks
alan

Unless I am going blind you state here clearly not a strong hive. so before getting on your soap box and taking a pop have a think about what I said, which was in good faith good advice as I always try to give and read what you typed.

PH

 

[djg]

oliver90owner,

Thanks for picking up my confusion of alan42's hive count with that of Otleybee's, who was the subsequent poster. My advice needs to be adjusted in the light of your observation.

alan42's single hive condition makes my previous advice problematic (sorry for not reading properly alan42!) and the optimal QC retention to ensure a decent Q, while avoiding the prospect of swarms and multiple casts, moves to 2 from 1, IMHO.

Still a pity that you can't be 100% sure that any single sealed Q cell contains the "goods"!

 

[alan42]

poly hive please read my posts again you still have got it wrong i have NOT said i will take from the weak hive i stated i will take from the strong hive read all my posts not just the last one, before you start calling me names.
bound to be a blind school near you, get somebody to direct you.
again no helpfull advice from you ?

 

[alan42]

not worried about honey this year more concerned with expanding my hives from one to three if possible, thinking of cutting a qu cell out and taking a couple of frames from strong hive and creating a nuke but am i to late to get strong hives for the winter ?

this is what i posted and stop me if i am wrong but it clearly states frames from strong hive.
yep the blind school must be getting a new member.

 

[Cazza]

Hi Alan
I may be being completely thick here but does all the confusion arise from your profile which states you only have one hive?
Cazza

 

[oliver90owner]

alan42,

It might help Poly Hive - and the rest of us, for that matter - if your profile was not at least 100% wrong apparently.

How many colonies do you have?

RAB

 

[Poly Hive]

I quote you again Alan.

To cut a long story short i ended up with a queenless hive so put a test frame in. Today i see there are 7 lovely queen cells all sealed up my question is should i leave alone ? should i cut out the 6 cells and leave only one ? will they swarm with the other queens ? ( not a strong hive so dont want it to swarm) your advice would be much appreciated.
thanks
alan

You clearly state not a strong hive,

Now you can be as rude as you like and I will happily blow you out of the water every time. No worries there chiel.

However to me it is very clearly stated. NOT a STRONG hive you put. Do you mean it is a weak hive or not a strong one?

Frankly I care not and am putting you on block.

PH

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[Skyhook]

Incredibly rude response to people who were trying to be helpful in the face of your incorrect information. Perhaps you should leave it at the 9 posts- I assume at least that part of your profile is correct.

 

[BKF Admin]

Alan your a "paramedic" ??

Maybe you had a hard day

 

[Flatters]

Hi Alan,
I think the problem here stems from your opening words “to cut a long story short…” To get good and informed advice from the wealth of experience that is available to you on the forum you need to sometimes give the long story. Giving a long story often gives the information needed to the experienced ones, whereas in this situation the brief OP leaves out a lot of information that is needed.

You are asking for help and that will come in many forms, some may seem terse but they are trying to understand complex issues with minimal information and give you a good answer.

Welcome to the forum and I hope that the teething problem experienced here is over quickly. This forum is too good a resource to miss out on. You put up with the stings from your girls so you may have to put up with some apparent, but often unintentional, stings from here to enjoy you hobby.

Good luck

 

[stilllearning]

hi alan
personally i would leave just one queen cell ...its getting late in the season ....but not too late i have made nucs up later than this and as long as the weather is kind in the late summer/autumn it'll be fine. your in a position whereby when/if she gets mated you can regularly check and feed, also if she does get mated you can add bees and brood gradually from your strong hive if however you go for the leaving a queen cell option and it doesn't work then i would say it would be too late to try again, unite them with a colony and try again next year.
as for some of the "helpful" replies you get from some on here , ignore them do it YOUR way and learn from YOUR experiences although they do know a lot about keeping bees, attitude is something they've yet to learn
chin up we're not all ogres