Q cell, what to do

[ail901]

Hi All.

Advice please for a newbe,

I have a hive which has just had a super added ( 27th June), prev to that (24th June) I had seen a number of small cups and a Q cell with grub near bottom of frame. An experienced beekeeper friend was with me at the time and told me to destroy all cups and q grub. When I added super (27th) I again saw small Q cups which I decided to leave. 4th July, hive observation, I saw another queen cup with a grub ( long peanut size, open cup, this was at bottom of frame. I have not seen the Q since 14th June.

What should I do? If I artificial swarm split I need to move the old Q, is that right? I cant find her

How long have I got to make a decision

Thanks in advance

PS what is BIAS?

 

[John M]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I usually get loads of help here and not too much grief!

BIAS is brood in all stages- eggs larvae and sealed brood.

As far as finding the queen, if you move the hive to the new location ( relatively close) the flying bees will 'return' to a new hive placed where the old one currently is. This should make it less congested in the current, old, hive and so easier to find the queen.

 

[ail901]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I usually get loads of help here and not too much grief!

BIAS is brood in all stages- eggs larvae and sealed brood.

As far as finding the queen, if you move the hive to the new location ( relatively close) the flying bees will 'return' to a new hive placed where the old one currently is. This should make it less congested in the current, old, hive and so easier to find the queen.

Thanks John M

is that a temp thing, just to find the Q?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Breaking down queen cells is not often a good idea (sometimes it does apply but not in your scenario)
Bees will often make more and can swarm before the QCs are sealed.

If there is ONLY the one QC then you may be dealing with supersedure in which case you can leave well alone for a couple of weeks.
You'll have to look again.
Be very careful with the frame with the one QC you know about.
Shake all the bees off each frame and look for more QCs.
If you find more then you should select one open one and break down the rest.
Mark the frame/s they are on.

AS no queen found

Move the current brood box and floor to one side and put the new brood box and floor full of foundation on the old site. Take about 3 or 4 frames of foundation out from this box to create a gap and put them to one side.

Go through the old box frame by frame and shake all the bees into the gap. Avoiding shaking the rubbish on the old floor into the new hive but get as many of the bees as possible into the new brood box. Visually check the old box to check the queen is not hiding there.

Put a queen excluder on the new box and then replace on top of the queen excluder the old box with all its frames and with only one large unsealed queen cell (some people leave two) Remove all other queen cells. Leave for about 4 hours during which time all the nurse bees will go into the upper box where the brood is. The queen will be trapped below the queen excluder where you want her.

Take the old brood box away and place on a new or cleaned floor.

Thereafter manage as normal artifical swarm.

The hive may of course have already swarmed.

 

[enrico]

I think you need to do a bit of reading! Start with 'bees at the bottom of the garden' an easy read that explains the basics.
What you are trying to do is mimic a swarm. To do that you need a whole new bb with undrawn comb. You need to find the queen and put her and the frame she is on with no queen cells in that new hive in the old location. All the flying bees will go back to that spot and the queen would be as she is in a swarm, her and all the old bees. The old hive goes in a new place, they also think there has been a swarm as they are now only brood and young nurse bees. Try and move the queen less hive to the other side of the old hive location after a few days so any old flying bees will once again go to the old queen.
That is the theory!
Good luck
E

 

[ail901]

thanks for the info, I have tried reading up but getting confused.

Question please, the queen cell i saw was open, do I need to act now? when should I observe the hive again and when to split. I only have a 5 frame nuc box at this time will that do and if so for how long

Thanks again

 

[BeeJayBee]

You'll enjoy reading this booklet, it explains almost everything you need to know. It's called "There are queen cells in my hive" http://www.wbka.com/images/education/a012queencells.pdf

A nuc will be big enough to take the split you're probably going to have to do before that queen cell is capped. You'll be fine

 

[ail901]

You'll enjoy reading this booklet, it explains almost everything you need to know. It's called "There are queen cells in my hive" http://www.wbka.com/images/education/a012queencells.pdf

A nuc will be big enough to take the split you're probably going to have to do before that queen cell is capped. You'll be fine

thats just what I needed thanks, great link

need to find the Queen then