Play cups. To tear or not to tear?

[kazmcc]

Now I can get the forum to load properly, I shall ask the same question I did on fb yesterday. I was always taught to tear play cups down, but I'm wondering the wisdom behind this now. What do you do?

 

[oliver90owner]

Let 'em play. They will, only build more.

 

[kazmcc]

I usually just twist them with my hive tool. I would still have to pull off the older, darker ones to be sure there is nothing in them as I struggle to see in those. Someone said yesterday that if you leave them, they are a good indicator that they are thinking of swarming or supercedure as they begin to polish them when they are considering using them. That interests me.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Two trains of thought - both valid. play cups can be an indicator of swarming peparations, but not always.
Think of a strong vigorous colony (some of mine had closer to 100,000 bees rather than 50,000 this year) there's only so much queen substance to go around, the bees towards the periphery of the brood nest are getting less pheremone than ones in the middle, so you will often see play cups n the edges of the frames/on the outer frames. They're not neccessarily planning on swarming but, due to the low levels of pheremones they are just hedging their bets in case the queen is failing and they need to supersede.
Depends how bored I am really whether I tear them down - makes not a jot of difference to them swarming or not IMHO

 

[B+.]

What do you do?

I don't worry about them unless they have an egg in them.
I used to remove them on the assumption that the next time I came they would have an egg in but I found this not to be the case.

 

[Alabamaeee]

@KAZMCC = I also find it hard to see eggs in cells on a dull day but I just bought a cheap and nasty head torch from one of the big "Pound" shops and it works great. First use resulted in the angle adjustment bit breaking off but I now just hold it and point into the cells. It has about 10 very bright LEDS.

 

[kazmcc]

@KAZMCC = I also find it hard to see eggs in cells on a dull day but I just bought a cheap and nasty head torch from one of the big "Pound" shops and it works great. First use resulted in the angle adjustment bit breaking off but I now just hold it and point into the cells. It has about 10 very bright LEDS.

Thanks Alabamaee. I bought one of those cheap magnifiers with an LED light on, but I always forget to take it outside with me lol

 

[B+.]

Thanks Alabamaee. I bought one of those cheap magnifiers with an LED light on, but I always forget to take it outside with me lol

I have a really useful box that has apiary essentials in. The visor sits ontop so I don't forget it

 

[Millet]

The first two play cup's i spotted in my new hive i removed only for them to build more.. so i left them alone and they removed the second lot them self's.. i spotted another around 3wk's ago and removed half of it so i could see inside with the torch..one week later it had disappeared totally.. so from now on i will just let them get on with it..

 

[REDWOOD]

If I can't see inside them out they come, the just in case scenario but as JBM said it's all about pheromones and I often see the occasional play cup in a super frame

 

[kazmcc]

Just interested as to why I was told to pull them down, but then again this was from the same source that told me to pull out QCs as a form of swarm control :/ It's just we came across quite a few on Saturday, and after pulling the first few down, we decided to leave the rest in case they had something on their mind, after checking inside of course. I would be inclined to leave them from now on, as long as Dusty doesn't mind of course, after all, they are his bees

He told me the other day that if he wakes up one morning and hive 2 aren't there any more, he'll know exactly where to look lol. I do like those bees. An excellent queen

 

[REDWOOD]

Play cups and QC's are two different things. Swarm control pulling QC's is not for the faint-hearted and should NOT be practiced by the beginner and the success rate is only about 25%

 

[kazmcc]

........pulling QC's is not for the faint-hearted and should NOT be practiced by the beginner and the success rate is only about 25%

Oh I learned that within days of joining this forum, but that is what I was told to do at the time and I never found out the results as my queen was taken shortly into swarming season, so that was not a typical year. It was a good job I was inexperienced and missed one.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Just interested as to why I was told to pull them down, but then again this was from the same source that told me to pull out QCs as a form of swarm control :/ It's just we came across quite a few on Saturday, and after pulling the first few down, we decided to leave the rest in case they had something on their mind, after checking inside of course. I would be inclined to leave them from now on, as long as Dusty doesn't mind of course, after all, they are his bees

He told me the other day that if he wakes up one morning and hive 2 aren't there any more, he'll know exactly where to look lol. I do like those bees. An excellent queen

I had the same poor advice re swarm control during my first few weeks of hands on training
Didn't take more than a couple of weeks to realise I'd been misled.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The only time I bother to scrape them off is if there are old play cups on an empty drawn frame I'm putting in

 

[Finman]

The only time I bother to scrape them off is if there are old play cups on an empty drawn frame I'm putting in

Vain job to scrape them. They mean nothing. All hives make them, even if they do not swarm.

 

[kazmcc]

I had the same poor advice re swarm control during my first few weeks of hands on training
Didn't take more than a couple of weeks to realise I'd been misled.

It's a good job we found out before becoming set in our ways lol

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
I realise that I am going to be in minority on this one, but I scrape them off. They just accumulate over time and I don't want to check the same ones over and over. 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, 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.

 

[kazmcc]

Hi all,
I realise that I am going to be in minority on this one, but I scrape them off. They just accumulate over time and I don't want to check the same ones over and over. 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, 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.

Well if you are in the minority, then I am too lol. Like i say, I twist them with my hive tool, but I was just curious as to what everyone else does and why. Your reason of not wanting to keep checking the same ones over and over makes sense. I don't like the old ones, they make me nervous, those little domed, new ones are fine, I can see in those properly, but the older ones always look more drawn to me.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Just interested as to why I was told to pull them down, but then again this was from the same source that told me to pull out QCs as a form of swarm control :/

Just to note - this wasn't me! Dusty


It's just we came across quite a few on Saturday, and after pulling the first few down, we decided to leave the rest in case they had something on their mind, after checking inside of course. I would be inclined to leave them from now on, as long as Dusty doesn't mind of course, after all, they are his bees

I'm happy with that, Kaz. Dusty

He told me the other day that if he wakes up one morning and hive 2 aren't there any more, he'll know exactly where to look lol.

Yep. I'll be straight round to your place. Dusty

I do like those bees. An excellent queen

One of Hivemaker's finest. Dusty

Dusty