Help - Queen Query!

[markb2603]

Hi Folks,

Seeking a bit of info to help me sleep a bit easier over the next few days.

I got my first 2 nucs in early March from a local beekeeper. Both nucs were over wintered and were supposed to be 2021 queens. I noticed in one nuc a blue marked queen which indicates a 2020 queen. The second nuc, the queen wasn’t marked and I noted substantially smaller so I just assumed 2021 queen.

I put both nucs into hives and the 2020 queen hive was much stronger. After a few weeks of ignoring feeds, they took in 3l last week and this week. They’ve built out 6 foundationless frames fully and I’m cycling out the old frames for foundationless over the course of the summer. I actually moved a frame of stores over the the 2021 queen hive last week and a frame of eggs/brood this week to help them along as they are much weaker.

2021 queen hive, just hasn’t got going at all. I noticed about 2 weeks ago, they hardly had any stores built up (despite me feeding the same as the other hive and good forage in the area) and they only occupied about 4 frames (no growth since I put them in the hive). When I opened up this week, they have built up stores and drawn out maybe half a foundationless frame. I saw brood at all stages and a small amount of eggs. I spotted 2 supersedure queen cells today in this hive (no doubt about it). The cells looked fairly new, weren’t occupied or capped. I squashed both down as I assumed that because I saw eggs, the queen must be in there. Now I’m thinking I should have left them as something obviously happened to the queen and the bees are creating a new one. There are plenty of eggs now as I added a frame of brood and eggs to this hive to try get them going. My question is, if the queen is indeed no more, will the bees make more queen cells this week or because I squashed down the two cells I saw, that’s it?

The other general question I had out of interest was, would the hive replace the queen solely because she wasn’t getting up and running? Also, if they are making a new queen, do they kill of the existing queen before they start the process?

Thanks very much!

 

[Anduril]

I saw brood at all stages and a small amount of eggs. I spotted 2 supersedure queen cells today in this hive (no doubt about it). The cells looked fairly new, weren’t occupied or capped. I squashed both down as I assumed that because I saw eggs, the queen must be in there. Now I’m thinking I should have left them as something obviously happened to the queen and the bees are creating a new one. There are plenty of eggs now as I added a frame of brood and eggs to this hive to try get them going. My question is, if the queen is indeed no more, will the bees make more queen cells this week or because I squashed down the two cells I saw, that’s it?

You say you saw 2 supersedure cells, but they were unoccupied. These would be play cups, a sign of a healthy hive. The queen may have been on the wall of the hive.

 

[Boston Bees]

I got my first 2 nucs in early March from a local beekeeper. Both nucs were over wintered and were supposed to be 2021 queens. I noticed in one nuc a blue marked queen which indicates a 2020 queen.

Many people just mark with whatever pen they have to hand.

I spotted 2 supersedure queen cells today in this hive (no doubt about it). The cells looked fairly new, weren’t occupied or capped.

If there's not even an egg then they weren't supersedure cells, just cups.

Also, if they are making a new queen, do they kill of the existing queen before they start the process?

No

I actually moved a frame of stores over the the 2021 queen hive last week and a frame of eggs/brood this week to help them along as they are much weaker.

If you have a weak hive, moving eggs to it isn't what they need - they don't have the spare nurse bees to feed the eggs/larvae. A frame of capped brood is best.

PS: You don't say in your profile where you are, which makes it hard to advise you.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I spotted 2 supersedure queen cells

In the first instance, why did you decide they were supersedure cells? Unfortunately I think that everything you mentioned after that was assumption based on that supposition.