Queen cell in small colony

[simonforeman]

So my remaining hive has brood on 5 frames, young and old lava and capped. I did not see eggs as it was too dull to. 1 of these frames is a part drawn foundation and there is 1 queen cell right in the middle of th3 frame on 1 side.

The queen is still there and they were calm when I checked. I know this QC was not there 7 days ago as they had not drawn that part of the foundation.
The hive has loads of space and empty drawn comb so do not know why they may want to swarm.

My thoughts are would it be a supersede cell?

If so do you only get 1 at supersedes?

Do I leave it or destroy it, the queen in my opinion is not a prolific layer so my be best to let it run its course... thoughts please on best way to proceed

 

[Beagle23]

So my remaining hive has brood on 5 frames, young and old lava and capped. I did not see eggs as it was too dull to. 1 of these frames is a part drawn foundation and there is 1 queen cell right in the middle of th3 frame on 1 side.

The queen is still there and they were calm when I checked. I know this QC was not there 7 days ago as they had not drawn that part of the foundation.
The hive has loads of space and empty drawn comb so do not know why they may want to swarm.

My thoughts are would it be a supersede cell?

If so do you only get 1 at supersedes?

Do I leave it or destroy it, the queen in my opinion is not a prolific layer so my be best to let it run its course... thoughts please on best way to proceed

Swarming isn't always prompted by the lack of space. It seems odd that only one QC should be present. Is the colony strong enough to do a split? Can you lift the old queen into your other hive?

 

[Millet]

So my remaining hive has brood on 5 frames, young and old lava and capped. I did not see eggs as it was too dull to. 1 of these frames is a part drawn foundation and there is 1 queen cell right in the middle of th3 frame on 1 side.

The queen is still there and they were calm when I checked. I know this QC was not there 7 days ago as they had not drawn that part of the foundation.
The hive has loads of space and empty drawn comb so do not know why they may want to swarm.

My thoughts are would it be a supersede cell?

If so do you only get 1 at supersedes?

Do I leave it or destroy it, the queen in my opinion is not a prolific layer so my be best to let it run its course... thoughts please on best way to proceed

Find your Queen and clip her wing she might try to swarm but will not get far, she may make it back to the hive but the Virgin will kill her or the other way around, either way you will not loose bees apart from one Queen.

 

[mickbees23]

Sounds very much like supercedure. You really do need to see if any eggs are present as she may have gone off lay or the bees want shot of her and have stopped feeding her thus causing her to stop laying. Don't remove the queen cell unless you can see new eggs. If there are eggs at least you have options to remove her into a nuc and let them raise a new queen.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[simonforeman]

Thankyou all for the advice... will check again this afternoon after work for eggs

 

[Clemcook]

It sounds to me like your bees are trying to raise a new queen I often think the nature needs to take its course and they know best if it was me I would look for your existing Queen and perhaps pop her and some Brood and Bees into a new hive, and let nature take its course within your hive which has the cell, this is all assuming that your hive it's strong enough to do a split

 

[simonforeman]

I am new to this but I do not think at this time of year the hive is strong and will be weakened too much with a split....

Could I take just the frame of brood that the queen is on and shake some bees in a nuc with her and fill with foundation and feed? Otherwise I think I will just let them run their course.