Play cups. To tear or not to tear?

[kazmcc]

LOL!!

Were you taught to tear them down Dusty? Or did i just stick my hive tool in one and you were too polite to say anything? lol

You are so very good to me, thank you for letting me loose on your poor bees

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

all of a sudden they can become charged, so stop inspecting them at your peril. Discussed this with a long time beek at our apiary as he did not check them. In demonstrating to me that they were nothing to worry about we found them all charged, so I rest my case.

Nothing wrong with tearing them down but a pretty pointless exercise - if they want to swarm and you've torn all the playcups down, do you honestly think they won't build new ones?

 

[Travelator]

I usually knock down play cups because that way at the next inspection I can easily see how many new ones have been built. I'm pretty certain that knocking them doesn't make the bees any more or less likely to swarm.

Hooper advises knocking down open queen cells the first time they appear in a colony (IIRC), on the grounds that a proportion of colonies do actually give up on the idea of swarming for whatever reason. Perhaps this message got a bit garbled and that's how people ended up blitzing play cups?

 

[kazmcc]

Interesting that they are something we come across every time we inspect, but I have never thought to question why we do what we do. I understand they have nothing to do with swarm control, I just wondered why I was taught to twist them off. I suppose it's just one of those individual things we all do, or not as the case may be. Habits passed on by teaching.

 

[B+.]

Habits passed on by teaching.

Keep questioning. We were all taught things as beginners that it takes years to shake off....like waiting until the super is 2/3 full before adding another.

 

[kazmcc]

Keep questioning.

I can hear the whole forum groaning lol, DON'T ENCOURAGE HER!!

 

[B+.]

I can hear the whole forum groaning lol, DON'T ENCOURAGE HER!!

I have mentored a few beginners and I've never objected to questions. I only really get irritated when people stand looking at the comb as though it will do the job itself......yes, I'm a terrible teacher!

 

[beeno]

Nothing wrong with tearing them down but a pretty pointless exercise - if they want to swarm and you've torn all the playcups down, do you honestly think they won't build new ones?

Don't put words in my mouth that was not my reasoning - thank you.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

well otherwise the 'reasoning' implied is that not tearing them down will induce them to swarm which is a heap of balderdash.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I read a study on queen cups, especially the ones that sit around for a long time and are quite thick and 'acorn rippled', that all of a sudden they can become charged

Link to the study please, Beano.

 

[kazmcc]

well otherwise the 'reasoning' implied is that not tearing them down will induce them to swarm which is a heap of balderdash.

The guy who taught me never mentioned to tear them down to help stop them swarming, or at least that's the impression I got at the time. I think that's just how he did things, and passed that on to me by habit. It has made me wonder what other things I do that have been passed to me by habit?

 

[B+.]

It has made me wonder what other things I do that have been passed to me by habit?

um....gardening?

 

[kazmcc]

um....gardening?

Wasps? I can identify most of the social wasps now. Who would have thought it?!

 

[beeno]

Link to the study please, Beano.

I shall attempt to find it again, but I am sure others must have found it too.

 

[Thymallus]

With play cups curiosity wins every time with me. I just have to check them to see if there is an egg or a more advanced problem, which usually manes opening them up a bit more if the angle is wrong. I don't tear them down indiscriminately.

 

[beeno]

Hi Hivemaker,
This is what I read and posted in 2014.

Hi all,
By definition a queen cup when charged becomes a queen cell which means that you will have to look inside it!
I can now confirm that we found numerous of these acorn shaped queen cups to be charged (as quoted below on David Cushman's website) at our last apiary session! I did detect a little bit of irritation at my insistence that each and everyone should be checked, but hey you suffer for your art. Whatever you want to call them, or me for that matter, don't ignore them!

"During early 2000 I had various Email conversations with Rex Boys. Some of the following text is Rex's.

Play cells, also known as queen cups, are the little cells that look like acorn cups, that appear as though the bees started building a queen cell, then changed their mind and curved in the entrance to be, what appears to be, the diameter of a worker cell. These cups are always around and become part of the furniture so it is easy to forget to look inside them but you do so at your peril because they are the real thing. ..."

 

[BeeJayBee]

I read a study on queen cups...

Link to the study please, Beano.

Hi Hivemaker,
This is what I read and posted in 2014.

... (as quoted below on David Cushman's website) ..."

Maybe you mean a scientific paper on PLOS or somesuch site?

If not, your quotes seem to come from this page on Dave Cushman's site, which isn't a "study" it's a report of a conversation about a theory, and what Dave Cushman planned to do next. But he didn't do anything because ill health got in the way.

 

[beeno]

My choice of word was obviously wrong, but hey I settle for having proved an hypothesis. Well, I can confirm that Rex Boys was correct by my empirical observation which is an acceptable way to establish facts in the scientific way, so it is at least two of us that has got the knowledge. I leave you scientist to theorise about it. Maybe there is some BBKA or EU funding available for it? My interest is practical beekeeping and I find it fascinating. Thank you.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You prove nothing by quoting yourself and a mention of a theory on another site. But if it makes you happy................................