Queen cells anyone ?

[For want of a better word]

Having got Egg Day over started to think that perhaps I should give the garden hives a prod... particularly as the local postie said one of our neighbours had found queen cells already in one of his hives.
Sunny and mild and no wind ... calmly got back into the rythem of puffing and humping the boxes, clearing away brace comb and finding lots of new brood and eggs in all... even saw a couple of the queens!
The last hive a WBC on double brood was heaving with bees ( New Zealands... a bit like Buckfasts but better !) Lifting the top brood I was greeted with a host of queen cells ... some sealed... carefully checking through the box I found a good three frames of drone cells and five sealed brood and loads of stores, similarly in the bottom brood.
I found the queen .. even though I was not looking for her... left her safely in the bottom brood and put a quilt on top.
The top brood was sitting happily on my management box, with a quilt atop to keep it warm... and keep the bees from flying!

Mid April seems a bit early to carry out an AS, but needs bee...

Nice cleaned brood box... new frames and foundation.... old bottom box plus queen lifted off the WBC modified floor with open mesh, new box on first outer lift fitted.
every frame carefully shaken and bees quickly filled the new box, a couple of frames of stores without any brood gently dropped into place, wire queen excluder fitted.. with its own little integral eke to give bee space.
So much brood both old boxes had to be fitted, after careful removal of any queen cells.
Quilt fitted, outers refitted... roof on.

Now in theory the queen is in the bottom brood box with all the colony of bees... flying bees will return.. and the colony will move up quickly to look after the brood.... many may disagree but even if you miss the queen she will be in the bottom brood restrained from getting up to the brood.

No not at all... she was underneath the hive... I wondered why so many bees were clustered there!
By now I had my gloves off... I put my hand out and she walked onto it, lifted her to the entrance she regally walked back in !

Not one sting or even a ping!

Tomorrow, weather permitting I will split that lot into 3.. spread the brood new larvae / eggs and stores around and hope that Mother Nature smiles on them!

I may even buy a Lottery Ticket !

Going to be a very busy time ahead !

 

[enrico]

Oh that every time went like that

 

[Hebeegeebee]

"( New Zealands... a bit like Buckfasts but better !) Lifting the top brood I was greeted with a host of queen cells" .

Does better = lots of queencells in April?

 

[For want of a better word]

"( New Zealands... a bit like Buckfasts but better !) Lifting the top brood I was greeted with a host of queen cells" .

Does better = lots of queencells in April?

I think the weather has had a lot to do with it>>>

 

[roolbg]

First post, hi all.

Today I inspected my 1 year old colony of carniolans and found about 6 sealed queen cells, surprising as last week I must have missed the queen cups on a frame. Now while I didn't see the queen, but I didn't notice much of a difference in the number of bees, and there were still as many as ever in the super. Now the past few days have been pretty poor weather (Central London), and I'm wondering should I assume the old queen has swarmed or go look again tomorrow and if I see the queen perform an artificial swarm. Would appreciate advice and/or criticism.

 

[drstitson]

"Now the past few days have been pretty poor weather (Central London), and I'm wondering should I assume the old queen has swarmed or go look again tomorrow and if I see the queen perform an artificial swarm"

assuming queen still present then need to get back to that hive asap as will swarm as soon as weather deemed suitable.

if you have lost the prime swarm then not so urgent but will need to prevent casts.

check out the welsh queen cell booklet if you haven't already and be prepared for all eventualities early tomorrow.

 

[Bluebell]

I found similar situation today, between hail showers it was finally sunny and warm enough to inspect. There seemed to be queen cells in all stages - one with larvae/royal jelly, 4 sealed and a couple apparently open (although they could have been pulled when I moved frames).

I was pretty sure they hadn't swarmed as still choc-a-block and I found a queen, but didn't risk marking and clipping just in case she's newly hatched virgin. Anyway, I did an artificial swarm with her and hope for the best.

First AS I've done (coming into 2nd yr beekeeping). Stupidly, I left ALL the various queen cells in the other hive. The weather was turning again and I just closed up rather than go through again. Is this a disaster? Will they just fight it out, will the bees tear down QCs not needed or will this prompt another swarm?

BTW I found the Welsh queen cell info really helpful.

 

[freethorpe bees]

err 'scuse me. whats the Welsh queen cell info?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have Queen Cells
Very useful pdf

 

[Bluebell]

Someone put a link to it a few days ago, it's really good.

Won't let me post the link but its on Pembrokeshire BKA site under "knowledge", the document is called "Queen Cells in my hive what should I do?"

 

[freethorpe bees]

thanks!

 

[roolbg]

check out the welsh queen cell booklet if you haven't already and be prepared for all eventualities early tomorrow.

I've been clutching to that since I saw queen cups, I'll go tomorrow and if I see a queen I'll AS.

 

[vermillion]

Oh my goodness, it happened to me on Easter Sunday too! I was putting another deep on top of their original 10 frame to give them more room. My girls are brand new, just arriving two weeks ago. But I knew they would be ready for larger quarters. The last frame I moved into the new deep super had a closed QC, which I removed.

I do not have extra equipment to split...I thought I had more time.

My queen is laying, and when I first checked the hive five days after I got it, she was active, laying, and all was great. I did not even look for her on Sunday, except to be sure she was not on any of the frames I moved up.

I just hope they were not preparing to swarm....I was totally surprised and I will admit stressed to see this so soon.

My queen is just three months old this week....I will be reading more about this, for sure. I just hope they were crowded and will settle in now.

I will check them again Sunday, and I will have a swarm trap by then as well.

Thanks for this lovely forum.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A closed QC often means they have gone already.

 

[REDWOOD]

they have probably swarmed and left the queen cell for your colony to survive, by removing it the bees won't have a new queen. Check as soon as you can that the original queen is still there if she is all well and good failing this check to see if they are making new queen cells as this could be the only way your hive will survive without re queening.

 

[roolbg]

Cheers for the advice, I would have just jumped to the assumption that they had swarmed but the hive seemed fairly busy and no dramatic decrease in the number of bees as far as I could tell. Live and learn, live and learn...

 

[vermillion]

Yes, thank you from me too. My hive seems boiling with bees, too...I will keep my fingers crossed for you too, roolbg.

 

[roolbg]

Went this morning and found the queen so performed an AS, after panicking a bit from reading it went fairly smoothly and sadly the "nucleus" hive is the transport box I got the bees originally with an entrance cut in. But I'll soon change that (didn't expect swarming so early). Good luck to everyone else.

everythingwentbetterthanexpected.jpg (too few posts for the real deal)

 

[drstitson]

"The last frame I moved into the new deep super had a closed QC, which I removed. "

"I did not even look for her on Sunday,"

Oh dear Oh dear.

First rule of QCs is not to panic and destroy until you have established the hive status. As per Redwood - probably already swarmed (did there seem less bees) unless it was a supercedure cell - where on the frame was it?

read the welsh guide - print a copy for bedside table and one for littlest room.

 

[BeeNice]

After going through my hives 2 weeks ago the weather hasn't been good enough for me to do anything but go through the winter supers on top of the hives and get the queens below the QE. Go back and check if there is any eggs above the QE ie in the supers later. Got all queens below the QE but on one hive found a freshly seal QC above the QE in the super. No eggs in super, so queen below. Judging by the number of bees they haven't swarmed. On inspecting the BB found two open QC's with lavra in, have now done the Swarm control advice from the April Beecraft mag using a division board, an extra brood box and frames, will wait and see if this works as I don't need to expand my number of bee hives, if all goes well will unite onto Double Brood.
The season has started... looking forward to the fun and games of a new swarming season!