Queen Cells in Spring - Argh

[Beefriendly]

We are all sitting here like expectant fathers ... seen any drones about ?

I was watching mine flying today (not that many as it was chilly and breezy) and I didn't see any .. but ... the weather is forecast to warm up a bit as the week progresses so ... there's hope yet !

Nope. Doomed. Far too early. Realistic...

 

[pargyle]

Nope. Doomed. Far too early. Realistic...

You may be right but I've always been a cup half full rather than half empty sort of a person .. so time will tell !

 

[Beefriendly]

You may be right but I've always been a cup half full rather than half empty sort of a person .. so time will tell !

I've always tried to be realistic.

 

[Macdee]

Mini Nuc currently sitting in kitchen to keep warm, not many bees inside it.

Wife is not too sure about the new kitchen resident !!!!

 

[pargyle]

Mini Nuc currently sitting in kitchen to keep warm, not many bees inside it.

Wife is not too sure about the new kitchen resident !!!!

Where's the like button .. 'er indoors freaks out when ONE bee gets stuck in her greenhouse and I have to come and rescue (remove !) it !! I really got into trouble when I caught a drone in a plastic cup in there and then held it to show her they were harmless .... I won't do that again.

I think a hive of bees in the kitchen (no matter how small) would be grounds for divorce...

 

[Newbeeneil]

Where's the like button .. 'er indoors freaks out when ONE bee gets stuck in her greenhouse and I have to come and rescue (remove !) it !! I really got into trouble when I caught a drone in a plastic cup in there and then held it to show her they were harmless .... I won't do that again.

I think a hive of bees in the kitchen (no matter how small) would be grounds for divorce...

Hmmmmmmm now there's a thought!

 

[beeno]

Good afternoon all,

I checked though the original hive today and found another queen cell primed with an egg in it.
It was in the middle of a frame

I removed it, like recommended by others on this thread.

How long should I keep removing these single primed queen cells ?

Cheers

Alex

In three weeks time you should have a reasonable complement of mature drones based on what I saw during my inspection yesterday. Whether you will have good mating weather well that is another story.

 

[Macdee]

UPDATE:

The two queen cells in the mini nuc didn't hatch. They did contain queen bee shaped larvae. I think they got too cold over night, due to the low temperatures and low number of bees in the mini nuc.

The main hive was checked again yesterday and it had another single queen cell with an egg in it. I torn it down again and will keep doing so for a couple more weeks. I think then I will let any queen cells that develops after the two weeks to develop a bit and then do a split.
What do you think ?

Al

 

[pargyle]

UPDATE:

The two queen cells in the mini nuc didn't hatch. They did contain queen bee shaped larvae. I think they got too cold over night, due to the low temperatures and low number of bees in the mini nuc.

The main hive was checked again yesterday and it had another single queen cell with an egg in it. I torn it down again and will keep doing so for a couple more weeks. I think then I will let any queen cells that develops after the two weeks to develop a bit and then do a split.
What do you think ?

Al

Is your queen still laying - did you see eggs ? Is there worker brood ?

 

[Macdee]

Hi

Yes lots of eggs and worker brood, covering about 50% of both sides of 6 frames.

 

[Gunzo]

:

If the colony has swarm cells in March, then you don't want to propogate from that queen in any case. If it's supercedure, its almost certain that it's too early for the queen to go out and mate, so I would destroy the queencells. They might make more (check in a week and do the same). You want to delay supercedure as much as possible until there's a decent chance of mating. If you start to see drone brood in the worker cells, then it's only a matter of time before the queen fails completely; you can always unite to another colony if the queen is duff. (remove her first).[/QUOTE

 

[Macdee]

Hi Gunzo,

Would you delay things until the end of April and then let any supercedure cells remain from that point on ?

Al