Queen Cells in Spring - Argh

[Macdee]

Hi All,

I have just done my first inspection on one of my hives and found two queen cells.
One sealed and one almost sealed with lots of royal jelly in it.

The current queen is laying really well with 5 frames of brood, sealed / unsealed in all stages; including lots of eggs.

The position of the queen cells would I think suggest supersedure, but without drones won't that result in an unfertilised queen ?

What should I do ?????:

Pics below.

Al

 

[gp125john]

They look like supercedure cells which does seem a bit premature. There will be some drones about within the next 2-3 weeks.

It would be very difficult to actually see if because virgins are hard to spot and very fast but I believe in a supercedure situation, the old queen and the new one can co-exist until the new one starts laying.

However just at the moment there looks to be a reasonable amount of worker brood in your hive so the current queen can probably reign for a few more weeks.

I would destroy all the cells for the next 2-3 weeks and then allow them to supercede, when you have a chance of getting a reasonably well mated queen.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I opened a hive up today with an unsealed supercedure cell, the surrounding hives had a few drone cells so they will be about but not in large numbers. Less competition for the boys.......

 

[Bee Boys]

I checked my hives two days ago and found in one 5 hatched queen cells, I think thay were probably supercedure cells or the colony swarmed.

 

[Beefriendly]

Hi All,

I have just done my first inspection on one of my hives and found two queen cells.
One sealed and one almost sealed with lots of royal jelly in it.

Was there a larvae visible in the unsealed one?
I ask as I found a sealed queen cell in one of mine colonies today, opened it up to find there was lots of royal jelly and bugger all else. Queen laying well.

 

[Millet]

I checked my hives two days ago and found in one 5 hatched queen cells, I think thay were probably supercedure cells or the colony swarmed.

Did you find your Queen or any of the virgins ? ..the reason i ask is some colonies often start making Queen cells and then chance there mind and often remove them.. i see supercedure mentioned a few times on this thread but how do you actually know it is supercedure..i have seen no concrete evidence that suggests supercedure from the position or amount of Queen cells ..so if anyone has any concrete evidence please educate me..

 

[Millet]

They look like supercedure cells which does seem a bit premature. There will be some drones about within the next 2-3 weeks.

It would be very difficult to actually see if because virgins are hard to spot and very fast but I believe in a supercedure situation, the old queen and the new one can co-exist until the new one starts laying.

However just at the moment there looks to be a reasonable amount of worker brood in your hive so the current queen can probably reign for a few more weeks.

I would destroy all the cells for the next 2-3 weeks and then allow them to supercede, when you have a chance of getting a reasonably well mated queen.

I find Virgin Queens easy to spot it might take a couple of sweeps of the frames but i find them eventually..the ones i have trouble with are scrub un mated Queens the size of workers..now them are a challenge but i usually get there in the end..

 

[Murox]

1. Is the actual brood nest congested ?
2. How old is the queen ?
3. Have you checked for signs of disease ?

 

[Macdee]

Queen is a year old and no apparent sign of disease; hive looks like it is healthy and growing.

How would I tell if actual brood nest is congested ?
I can see free cells.
There are 5 frames with 1/2 brood and some stores, 4 frames of stores; out of 11 frames.

I wonder if I should remove queen cells once the last one is sealed and put them in a mini nuc; what do you think ?

Al

 

[Beefriendly]

emove queen cells once the last one is sealed and put them in a mini nuc; what do you think ?

Al

Any drones around yet?
Bit early in my part of the UK but you are further south than me.

 

[pargyle]

Split the colony - take a nuc off and put the queen with half the colony in one and the frames with the queen cells in with the rest of the colony in the other, Then they are not going to swarm - the early queen cells may come to nothing or they may hatch and get mated.

Once the new queen is laying you have lots of options - combine them back if the old queen is not performing or if she's still going wekk, sell the nuc as an early nuc - could be worth £150 or more -or you have two colonies which, by mid season, will be well on their way to being producers.

If the new queen does not get mated then you can buy in a queen or hang about for them to try again (and they will) or combine them back. It will need a bit of monitoring to keep an eye on what is happenin but ...

Knocking down queen cells is rarely the answer.

 

[Murox]

Queen is a year old and no apparent sign of disease; hive looks like it is healthy and growing.

How would I tell if actual brood nest is congested ?
I can see free cells.
There are 5 frames with 1/2 brood and some stores, 4 frames of stores; out of 11 frames.

I wonder if I should remove queen cells once the last one is sealed and put them in a mini nuc; what do you think ?

Al

I reckon Pargyle has given you sound advice.

 

[Macdee]

Any drones around yet?
Bit early in my part of the UK but you are further south than me.

No hatched drones in hive, but in one hive there was a cluster of 5 sealed drone cells

Split the colony - take a nuc off and put the queen with half the colony in one and the frames with the queen cells in with the rest of the colony in the other, Then they are not going to swarm - the early queen cells may come to nothing or they may hatch and get mated.

Thanks will look to do this

Regards

Al

 

[Beefriendly]

You need some evidence that there are mature drones before splitting....they take around 16 days to mature after emerging.
March is very early to be splitting colonies and expecting any queens that emerge from your already sealed cells (long before any drones are likely to be mature) to get successfully mated.
Personally I'd tear down the queen cells and see if they build more, it will buy you time for drone maturation and quite often they won't draw any more cells.

 

[Ian123]

You need some evidence that there are mature drones before splitting....they take around 16 days to mature after emerging.
March is very early to be splitting colonies and expecting any queens that emerge from your already sealed cells (long before any drones are likely to be mature) to get successfully mated.
Personally I'd tear down the queen cells and see if they build more, it will buy you time for drone maturation and quite often they won't draw any more cells.

Spot on

 

[enrico]

I have to admit, at the time of the year, I wouldn't even think about it. I would take them out and have a look inside. If you don't do it they probably will but the one thing you don't want is to lose your laying queen and have her replaced by a virgin at this time of the year.
E

 

[Macdee]

The existing sealed cell had a big larvae in it, and the unsealed cell was sealed today by the bees.

I put the second cell in a mini nuc and will see what happens; I always like experimenting and learning more.

It was fun cutting up the frame into two halves and setting up some new mini frames for the mini nuc.

Al

 

[pargyle]

The existing sealed cell had a big larvae in it, and the unsealed cell was sealed today by the bees.

I put the second cell in a mini nuc and will see what happens; I always like experimenting and learning more.

It was fun cutting up the frame into two halves and setting up some new mini frames for the mini nuc.

Al

Best of both worlds ... with the weather we have at present there are going to be drone cells in the colonies (certainly down here in the South and probably parts of the Midlands - possibly not in the chilly North). By the time those cells have hatched out there could well be some drones about. What has it cost you to do this ? A bit of work and a bit more time watching what is going on. I stand by my original advice and you have improved on it - great idea. P

 

[Antipodes]

It's a good looking cell in any case.....

 

[Beefriendly]

Best of both worlds ... with the weather we have at present there are going to be drone cells in the colonies (certainly down here in the South and probably parts of the Midlands - possibly not in the chilly North). By the time those cells have hatched out there could well be some drones about. What has it cost you to do this ? A bit of work and a bit more time watching what is going on. I stand by my original advice and you have improved on it - great idea. P

Queens/ drones/worker bees emerge, they don't hatch....eggs hatch.
I have seen a few drone cells already in one or two colonies in our northern frozen tundra, but they won't emerge for some time and unlikely to mature much before before end of April.