Queen cell in Super?

[sean-a]

I think that I have queen cells in the super.
I have a very active hive and opened the hive to inspect.
I found a lot of honey in the super and took out a few frames to have a look.
There appear to be some queen cells, I knocked one and I think that there is a lavae in one.

No eggs, but a hand full of brood in the super.

I am thinking that I need to split the hive to prevent swarming, or am I too late?


Any advice appreciated

 

[Finman]

.
Time to make Artificial swarm to cut swarming fever.
Splitting doest not save you.

 

[MrBeeMan]

You want an artificial swarm.

Hi.
You have clearly got problems in your hive. You will probably want to do a swarm control. To do this you will have to do an artificial swarm and make the bees think that they have swarmed.
To do this you must remove one of three things:
1) The Queen
2) The Brood
3) Or the Older adult bees.

I would advise you to remove the queen but there are certain processes you will have to take. You will have to be extremely careful.
Or if you would like to you can remove the queen cup but they will just make another one... and you'll have to remove that one. You can keep trying this and eventually they will give up.

Thanks,

 

[For want of a better word]

You can keep trying this and eventually they will give up.


and swarm.......

Knock down ALL the queen cells and carry out an Artificial Swarm... you will need another empty hive ( Floor, brood. cover board and roof)

Yeghes da

 

[enrico]

Do you have a queen excluder in place and are the eggs above it, if so...there is a possibility your queen is too!

 

[BeeJayBee]

There appear to be some queen cells, I knocked one and I think that there is a lavae in one.

No eggs, but a hand full of brood in the super.

I am thinking that I need to split the hive to prevent swarming, or am I too late?

Were there eggs on the brood frames?

If not your colony may have already swarmed, more than 3 days ago.

 

[dexter's shed]

Hi.
You can keep trying this and eventually they will give up.

Thanks,

yeah right, tell that to the bees, more likely to swarm leaving no queen

 

[Finman]

You can keep trying this and eventually they will give up.


and swarm.......

Knock down ALL the queen cells and carry out an Artificial swarm.

Yeghes da

If you knock them, they do new.
No help in knocking queen cells in this phase. Later.

 

[Finman]

.
Primary swarm uses to leave when first queen cells are capped.
Cast leaves when first virgin has emerged and is ready to fly. It is about week after primary swarm. You see it from open queen cells.

These are signs what you should look for.

 

[For want of a better word]

RECONSIDERATION......

Somewhere on the forum there is a reference to an excellent Welsh Beekeepers Association doc. on Queen cell identification....
you would not be the first beginner to mistake a drone cell for one!

Yeghes da

 

[bontbee]

http://www.wbka.com/?page_id=186

that should be the link to the library of the wbka and the leaflet to which icanhopit refers is at the bottom of the page. If the link doesn't work, google wbka and go to the library!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Eggs can definitely be moved by bees and placed somewhere 'odd', including in the super above a good queen excluder.

 

[REDWOOD]

No eggs, destroyed QC, Whoops

 

[BeeJayBee]

No eggs, destroyed QC, Whoops

I was hoping they would come back and say there were eggs in the brood box.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Is the brood in the super sealed?
Is the brood all Drone brood?

These would be 2 of the 1st questions I would ask.

 

[sean-a]

I tried an artificial swarm

So, on the advice of a local bee keeper, I have tried to do an AS.
I moved all the brood comb bar one frame to a new broodbox (including queen cells), shaking all of the bees back into the original broodbox (brushing the bees on the frame with Queen cells).

The original broodbox has only one frame of eggs and all the bees, the rest of the frames are new foundation.

New brood box added to the top of the hive, above the queen excluder and super overnight. Where it filled with bees.

I then removed the second brood box and have placed it next to the hive.

One problem is that it has been really cold overnight so I am hoping that the bees and brood have survived.
Will check them at the weekend as I have been back late so far.