Made a mistake today, what should I do?

[thomasc83]

Hi, would appreciate some help for a confused 2nd year keeper..

I have a nuc with nurse bees & brood/eggs from an artificial swarm taken a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd marked a single remaining QC last Thursday, but didn't do a great job of it; I calculated it would hatch between Tues and Wed (yesterday) this week.

I went in today but where I expected the QC to be, there was nothing. A couple frames further up, but in a very similar position, I found a QC, but with a hole bored in the side. First time I've ever seen this. I assumed I'd got my marking wrong, that this was the one QC I was looking for, and that it must have failed in some way (eg it hadn't hatched) so the workers had torn a hole to remove the body.

I then worked up through the other frames and found 3 - 4 other small/poor looking emergency QCs I must have missed last time - stupid me - all capped. At this stage for some reason I decided to remove all but one of those remaining QC (my incorrect thinking at the time: 'my other QC has failed, they must have tried to make others, lets leave them one').

Now having done some more thinking and researching, I now think what's actually happened is my original QC has hatched, workers have torn down the remains of her cell quickly (I didn't realise they would do this in just 1-2 days?), and she's gone and killed the first of the other emergency QCs I'd stupidly missed last time.

I'm now considering my next steps. I've no idea if the suspected virgin queen is still in my nuc, but it was packed out with bees so I suspect there hasn't been another swarm. I'm considering going back in tomorrow to destroy that one remaining QC - is this a good or bad idea? On one hand I want to place my bets on that one hatched virgin queen I suspect is in the hive. But on the other hand I've read that too much meddling in colonies with virgin queens can cause the colony to turn on the queen and destroy her anyway?


I'm out of my depth here, so keen to hear what an experienced beekeeper would do in this situation?

Thank you!

 

[markb2603]

I would leave the remaining QC in the nuc as security. If there is a VQ in there already they’ll take care of the remaining capped QC. If she got damaged then they have something to fall back on. If they were going to swarm (which I would think would have been unlikely in the first place since it looks like they started taking down the other unhatched QC’s) they would have done it already.

Leave them be for 2 weeks and check for eggs and brood then.

 

[drex]

After about 15 years, I still get flummoxed. If I cannot work it out, I leave it to the bees. Invariably they sort it out. We can fiddle too much ( but I am not a let alone beekeeper)

 

[fian]

It could be that the nurses have killed the emerging queen due to any observed deficiency or the presence of a laying worker.
How many pictures of bees does it have?
If the bees are few, it is best to loosen the core and shake the bees.
If they occupy 3 squares or more, then destroy all cells, remove all squares and insert a square with open brood. Then close the spout leaving one or two openings. Smoke the driveway and start shaking the pictures in the front. Complete the core and close.

 

[pargyle]

After about 15 years, I still get flummoxed. If I cannot work it out, I leave it to the bees. Invariably they sort it out. We can fiddle too much ( but I am not a let alone beekeeper)

Time and Patience are often the best solution when things don't go as you expect. The bees are very adept at sorting out beekeeper mistakes.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Bees sometimes throw up queencells after the books say they should. An option (and there's no right and wrong answer in this case) would be to
1) use minimal smoke and have a careful look for a virgin running around.
2) Toss a coin and decide whether to remove the queencells or not
3) If you remove the queencells and then look a few days later, if there is a queen present you should see a space which the bees have prepared for her to lay - i.e. polished cells in the middle of the brood area; you might even see her. With no queen, this area will be getting filled with honey/stores. You can always put in a test frame to see if they make more queencells at this time if you are unsure. If they make queencells, you can cut down to one. If they don't, you can always put the frame of brood back where it came from if the donot colony needs it*.

*Always subject to disease concerns!

 

[enrico]

Here is the best advice I can give ..... Patience.....let the bees sort it.

 

[thomasc83]

Many thanks all, considering all of this excellent feedback I've decided to sit back, leave them at it, and hope for the best! Hopefully this ideal mating weather continues for another few weeks and I'll update what I find when I inspect in a 2 or 3 weeks time...

 

[Ian123]

If there’s a hole bored in the side as you say it’s possible that another virgins already running around!

 

[thomasc83]

Update: inspected today and found well laid eggs, so I have a queen! Now to wait and see capped brood to determine if she's mated..

Strangely, I found a single newly-charged queen cell amongst a number of play cups. I'm going to put it down to teething issues, or bees having an insurance policy until new Queen has proven herself... I'll check again next week.