zimbrowski
New Bee
Hey guys, here's a baffling one. 4 weeks ago one of my hives swarmed taking the 1 year old queen with them. I managed to retrieve the buggers from across the road and place them in a new hive. The queen was very much in evidence during the whole process (lots of clustering around her and after shaking half of them into the hive, the others raced on up the ramp after her). After a week I inspected and found bees drawing comb very quickly and 3 empty queen cups. Nothing else apart from very angry little ladies.
3 weeks later, they have since drawn out 5 frames and are filling them with stores and pollen. There was no laying until about a week ago when grubs and eggs began to appear. I found another queen cup and destroyed it. Upon further inspection I discovered that all the capped brood was drone brood in a pepper pot formation which indicates a laying worker (damn). Today I found a further 3 queen cups, 2 opened and 1 intact. They are still very hostile to say the least.
Are the workers hopelessly trying to produce queens out of drone brood (which I thought didn't happen)? Or is there some divine miracle about to occur and furnish me with a new queen?
Anyone?
Thanks
Zim
3 weeks later, they have since drawn out 5 frames and are filling them with stores and pollen. There was no laying until about a week ago when grubs and eggs began to appear. I found another queen cup and destroyed it. Upon further inspection I discovered that all the capped brood was drone brood in a pepper pot formation which indicates a laying worker (damn). Today I found a further 3 queen cups, 2 opened and 1 intact. They are still very hostile to say the least.
Are the workers hopelessly trying to produce queens out of drone brood (which I thought didn't happen)? Or is there some divine miracle about to occur and furnish me with a new queen?
Anyone?
Thanks
Zim
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