Queen Cells in Super!

[bunbury]

I opened a hive yesterday and in the super on checking the frames ( on wide spacers) I was very surprised to see 2 Queen cells tacked on to the centre of the comb with one each on 2 frames. There were no brood or eggs in the super so the queen had not come up through the Q excluder.Taking the super off; the brood box was completly free of Q cells and the well paint marked Q was filling up most of the cells with capped brood and eggs. I forgot in replacing the Q excluder and super to remove the 2 Q cells and therefore this am terrified that there might be 2 virgin Qs going around the super causing mayhem to the temper of the hive I reopened the super and took off the Q cells They were well formed but empty.
Is there an explaination? By the way could virgin Qs get through a Q excluder?

 

[oliver90owner]

Is there an explaination?

It happens from time to time. Some queens, never mind virgins can get through the excluders. A decent sized queen, virgin or not, should not be able to get through.

 

[Travelator]

Sounds like play cups to me - I don't think the OP made any suggestion that the cells were charged (ie. contained eggs, larvae, or jelly) or showed signs of having been occupied (ie. full length, dark colour, "hatch" hanging open or frayed appearance of rim.

The bees might find the super an attractive place to build play cups because of the wider spacing. And of course, they don't have a whole lot else to do with their time at the moment.

 

[oliver90owner]

I don't think the OP made any suggestion that the cells were charged

Does this not indicate to you that these cells were, indeed, capped?

I forgot in replacing the Q excluder and super to remove the 2 Q cells and therefore this am terrified that there might be 2 virgin Qs going around the super causing mayhem to the temper of the hive I reopened the super and took off the Q cells They were well formed but empty.

You might be right, but I was giving the OP credit of some knowledge of queen cells.

 

[Midland Beek]

You need a bee book. They were queen cell cups and not queen cells.

 

[bunbury]

Sorry if a full description of the Q cells was not in my thread.
They were 3/4 size of a full Q cell rough on the outside as a normal full size Q cell but had not been occupied. They were twice the size of Q cups of which I am knowledgable!

 

[REDWOOD]

check in a few day to see if more have been made, they could be in swarm mode

 

[oliver90owner]

but had not been occupied.

Err, what was the panic for, then? No chance of virgins running amok for the next two weeks or so - at least!!!

 

[bunbury]

Yes panic subsided but understandable at the time.