Hidden queen cell

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Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Messages
90
Reaction score
69
Location
Aberteifi, West Wales
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
150 +
In one of my apiaries today doing my general inspections and I came across this frame. It was in a box that I'd dropped a 4 frame nuc in a fortnight ago.
Can you find the active capped queen cell that the little tikes decided to hide?
By the way it was the only QC in the box. I was a little bit lucky as the numbers of bees in the box was fairly low with bees on only 4 frames.
IMG_0483.jpegIMG_0484.jpeg
 
It can be seen in the second pic, I had an inkling looking at pic one where it was to be found.
 
That wax (around the queen cell) is a lot more than a fortnight old. And there are no bees tending the cell. What makes you think it is active?

And yes, I can see that larger cell in the middle of the frame, but no, I don't think that's a QC.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,
Yep.......Bottom left corner in the lower pic.
When I said it was active, there was a dead queen inside. However, she was fully formed, had turned in the cell and appeared to have been dead for only a couple of days. Hence, the reason the nurse bees weren't paying it any further attention as she wasn't piping anymore.
My opinion was that as it was constructed too tight to the frame, possibly the bees had slightly overdone the capping off and so she was unable to emerge.
The pic was taken after I'd shaken the majority of bees off so that I could get a pic for everybody to see clearly.
As can be seen in the first pic it was totally invisible from that side.
The reason I posted the pic was as follows......
1) On occasions no matter how well you inspect there are times when even the very experienced inspector could quite easily miss a QC.
2) I thought the pic might help to focus the mind of novice bk's to pay particular attention to the sides of the frames when inspecting for QC construction.
If it helps others that are less experienced....I'm cool with that.......
 
What do you mean she had turned in the cell? Do you mean you found a bee facing head first up right. That’s not a queen that’s a worker that’s gone in and been sealed up behind, common after the queens emerged.
 
That nuc also looks very poor, bees not on the brood lack of stores, a few dodgy cells and would suspect high varroa.
 
What do you mean she had turned in the cell? Do you mean you found a bee facing head first up right. That’s not a queen that’s a worker that’s gone in and been sealed up behind, common after the queens emerged.
Yes seen that a few times. It's a great thing to show new beekeepers when you're going through their hives with them
 

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