Nuc Queen Cells

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Erichalfbee

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Hi, I have searched somewhat but nothing seems to quite hit the spot.
I have a new nuc installed four weeks ago. It came on five brood frames all with some stores and a 2009 queen. The first two inspections were largely uneventful.I had a look at it ten days ago and there was now brood on seven frames, mostly capped honey on one frame, one partially drawn frame and two frames largely untouched. The brood was absolutely solid,mostly capped with a few grubs of varying ages and some eggs, so I put on a super thinking I should leave off the QE for three days. When I went to put on the QE I found a queen cup with royal Jelly and a larva. The bees were drawing out the super above the brood quite nicely so I destroyed the queen cup and hoped that more room would sort it. This afternoon, seven days after putting on the QE, I found one queen cup with a larva and royal jelly and five capped queen cells, Two on the bottom of the frame and three by the side bars about half way down. I destroyed the smallest three but the worrying thing is that two were empty, just full of royal jelly. The frames with the remaining two have been marked, and the existing queen artificially swarmed. She is now in a new brood box of foundation with her frame and a frame of honey plus the super on the old site. I will go back tonight to put a feeder on the queenless hive.
Have I missed anything, have I done the right thing,when should I check the hive again?
The good news is that in three weeks of weekly checking I haven't seen any varroa:)
Thanks for your help.
 
When you A/S them did you shake in at least 2-3 other frames of bees as well with the marked queen?
If you didn't don't panic as its too late to do it now, but otherwise sounds like you did all the right things.

btw - you will like the rest of us have varroa, everyone does !
 
Sounds as though you've had a baptism of fire.

Doesn't sound like swarm prep but supercedure, perhaps the bees think she was failing in some way. (You didn't say if the original queen was clipped)

looks like you've done the right thing. The best place to check for varroa is in the drone brood if you have any yet but I wouldn't interfere with drones at the moment given you will soon have an emerging virgin queen.

How many queen cells did you leave?

I wouldn't go near the queenless hive for three weeks.

Good luck
 
Thanks,
Yes I was thinking of supercedure as well. It would explain why they hadn't swarmed even though the queen cells were capped. There are two frames in the AS. One with HM and one with capped and uncapped honey. Both have bees. The queen was unclipped. I left two queen cells both capped.
Should I feed the queenless hive? What about doing the second AS manoeuvre in seven days?
Phew!!! What a lot to learn!
 
Why feed if they have sufficient stores? Waste of sugar and will 'contaminate' any honey in the box.

If you are leaving two queen cells, then the additional move (to reduce the number of flying bees) will reduce the risk of a cast swarm emerging when the queen hatches.

Regards, RAB
 
You are lucky to still have your queen, as get a least one sealed queen cell and swarming can occur.

Three things:-

1/ I would probably not bother feeding the queenless part if it is well enough provisioned with food.

2/ I would be inclined to open up the queenright part and check for queen cells. You might have missed one - have a real good look.

3/ Open up the queenless part and destroy all subsequent queen cells except the two that you have decided to keep - assuming you know which two these are. For the bees, two queen cells would not be enough, and they have probably built a batch of emergency queen cells. But do not damage your two 'good' ones.
 
Rab, you're right.I will take the feeder off tonight. The queenless hive has a good supply of capped honey with the brood. I'll go into both hives on Monday

1. to check there are no QCs in the queenright hive (I'm sure there weren't as I only moved two frames..... one with the queen on and one with stores)

2. to check there are only the two QCs that I left on the marked frames.

Do you think I should look at the queenless hive again in a week to do the same again considering that this should be about hatching time?

Midland Beek ... I am indeed lucky to have a queen. I spotted the QCs before her and thought...."Oh well that's it, that's half the nuc b*****ed off!"
 
I might normally do it only once or not at all. 6 days after the A/S and there should be no suitable larvae to make more queen cells, so once then is normally enough.

If I know when the cell is capped, removing the flying bees just the previous day or so will minimise the risk of a cast, normally. Yours is not normal. You have sealed cells of unknown date of capping.

I have no idea if you missed a cell earlier or if they used, say, a 3 day-old larvae to make the next! So accurate timings might be impossible in your circumstances.

Regards, RAB
 
Well the AS hive has no queen and fewer bees than I would expect so I guess they've swarmed.........I nearly(how many times do we use that word?) put in a QE under the brood box.......sigh.
The new hive has no more QCs...... had to look though I know I will have to look again in three days...then I will leave them to it.
 

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