Play cups ?

[Mike a]

I went to visit the hive with the swarm I got last week and found 3 cups.
At the time I fed them 2.5 pints of sugar water as I transferred them from a national sized nuc to a deep national nuc with all new foundation.

Today I went to remove the frame feeder and replace it with a frame and thought as I was there I'd take another quick look to see if they were using the sugar water feed to draw out new comb as the 2.5 pints left the queen a little honey bound on 3 frames although now they are drawing out frame 3 and one side of frame 4. Sadly my camera battery died as I was taking the picture but I found in total 3 cups and I'm in two minds if they are play cups or not.

I wasn't looking for the queen as I found a small patch of eggs still upright in the cells but only a small amount, this I'm putting down to the fact the queen has been honey bound (sugar water bound) as they took the feed very quickly as they were drawing out frame 1 & 2.


To see a larger picture goto http://www.fdbka.co.uk/images/mda/c3.jpg

 

[Poly Hive]

OK.

A play cup is just that. There can be tens of them and they mean nothing. They are NORMAL.

EVEN if there is an EGG in ALL of them effectively it means nothing. The bees will say "tut" and move it to a cell.

However when you find a grub in one swimming in royal jelly its AS time.

Does that help?

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

Inaddition to PH, there is always the possibility of supercedure with an old queen that has already swarmed at least once.

Regards, RAB

 

[Mike a]

Thanks guys

I caught the sun today at our association meeting, it was a long meeting going round three apiaries with the bee inspectors and my bald head feels like its glowing a steady 20 Watts.