Puzzled

[Otleybee]

Ok so here is the situation.

Hive swarmed just over 4 weeks ago. They left behind 10 queen cells. I went through and destroyed all but one of them. She hatched, I saw her 3days after hatching and started laying about two and a half weeks later. So now they have pollen, honey capped brood and eggs. The bees have immediately started making queen cells again with some supersedure cells and some swarm cells.

Why are they making these? Are they still intent on more swarming or have they decided the new queen is no good and are going to replace her.

I dont know what to do now.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[milkermel]

Mine did similar, until I put a super on, could be they need more space, if you have a queen and are seeing eggs lava sealed brood then I would remove QC however wait until tonight the pros will be in from playing with their bees and they are more clued in then me.

 

[Grub]

sounds like they are replacing the queen to me, but with so many cells they will swarm I would either re-queen , remove all cells if you have eggs only, and check in 7 days.
Hope this help, Iam sure others will have a say as well

Grub

ps welcome to the forum

 

[Otleybee]

Mine did similar, until I put a super on, could be they need more space, if you have a queen and are seeing eggs lava sealed brood then I would remove QC however wait until tonight the pros will be in from playing with their bees and they are more clued in then me.

I did put a super on as they had drawn out 9 of the 11 frames in the brood box. There were quite a few bees in it last night but they are not drawing out comb in the super.

 

[Midland Beek]

Are they still intent on more swarming or have they decided the new queen is no good and are going to replace her.

I would assume supersedure, that's if they are not honeybound and the queen has space to lay. Have a look att the queen, any obviouis signs of damage, like a withered leg? Is there a high proportion of drone brood?

I would leave them to it.

 

[Grub]

I would assume supersedure, that's if they are not honeybound and the queen has space to lay. Have a look att the queen, any obviouis signs of damage, like a withered leg? Is there a high proportion of drone brood?

I would leave them to it.

Hi
Leave them to it with 10 queen cells ?? why not reduce at least ?

Grub

 

[Midland Beek]

Leave them to it with 10 queen cells ?? why not reduce at least ?

You know, I just would not be bothered reducing queen cells in this case, although with supersedure there is the risk of losing a swarm. The difference here is that the colony in question has already swarmed this season, and because of this may be a lot less inclined to swarm again.

I'll admit, 10 queen cells is a lot, so beek needs to establish that the queen has space to lay and they are not honeybound. If the queen is swimming across frame after frame full of honey, then these bees could possibly be swarming, and not superseding.

 

[Heather]

Have you a queen excluder in place. if so IMO I would remove it,so encouraging them to start drawing out the super. More room.

I would remove those queen cells- IF you have 1 day eggs and have checked the queen looks good. Or you could put the old queen and half the hive into a Nuc temporarily and allow them to keep the one best queen cell. Allow it to develop- then in 4 weeks see which is progressing better - dump the weaker queen and reunite the 2 small colonies. They will think they have swarmed and so stop making queens.- lots of scenarios to choose from - welcome to bee keeping!!

 

[ENZO]

silly question but are you sure the queen is not a drone layer, is the capped brood fairly flat or quite domed, I had two this year that started to lay, I thought great, then I saw new queen cells on furthur inspection I noticed 90%/100% of the capped cells were drone brood but not as in full size drone brood, worker size cells but with quite domed cappings, what I did was removed the new q-cells and introduced a q-cell that had appeared in another colony. I don't like using just swarm cell for increase but sometimes they come in handy.

I never reduce down to just one cell as that one could be a dud, I reduce them down to 3 cells and let the bees decide as I am sure they are better at doing this than I. I prefer to loose the odd cast swarm (not very often though) than to nurture a dud/slow queen because I thought the q-cell she was in was the right colour.

all the best, Enzo

 

[Otleybee]

Thanks for your opinions folks.
I am going to leave them and see what happens. As you said they have swarmed already this year so I would think that they are much less likely to do it again. There is space for the queen to lay. While she was not laying the bees cleaned up all of the old brood cells and for 2 weeks I saw no eggs and nearly panicked.
I will try removing the QE to see if they start drawing out the foundation in the super. There is a flow on from the himalayan balsam by the river here in Otley I think. They are certainly coming in with lots of white looking pollen.
I realised afterwards that reducing down to one QC was a mistake. Beginners error which I will not repeat.
Many thanks for all your replies and I am glad to have found a great looking forum for support and hopefully one day I can give a bit back.
Regards
Alan

 

[Otleybee]

It was supersedure. The new queen has hatched and i just have to wait again for her to start laying. They were pretty cross when I went into look today. Still lots of capped brood, honey, pollen and some drone brood. No eggs though so I guess that is why they replaced a new laying queen but there you go. They know best.
Alan