Queen cells still being made.

[666bees]

Just carried out another inspection and found another sealed queen cell. They are on a brood and a half national and have plenty of lava and brood. They are very strong and building up their stores at the moment as I feeding them. The queen cell is always at the bottom of a frame, is that a supercedures one. I keep removing it, will they give up doing this for the winter soon as its too late to artificially swarm them now.

 

[Hivemaker.]

They may or may not stop making the cells....they obviously are not happy with the present queen...you could find you have a drone laying queen come spring...or no queen.

 

[kazmcc]

Ours have made a cup. It's empty and it's in the super on the bottom of one of the frames where they previously had brood, but are now putting honey in the empty cells. They are on brood and half.

 

[Midland Beek]

One queen cell would easily suggest supersedure and not swarming, and no matter what time of year I saw one queen cell I would unhesitatingly leave it alone.

 

[666bees]

But the new queen wouldn't get mated at this time of the year would she? There lots of brood and very few drone cells.

 

[Polyanwood]

If they keep making QCs, the bees are saying that there is something wrong with the queen. I agree that breaking down queencells is therefore unlikley to work... odds are you will not have a viable queen in the Spring. One option is just to leave QC... she might emerge and get mated enough at least to give you a laying queen in the Spring.... or see if anyone on here has any mated queens left to sell. You could ask people to send you a PM if they have.....or destroy the queen and combine wiht a colony wiht a viable queen.

Good Luck.

 

[Hivemaker.]

No.... would most likely not get mated..depends on the weather and drones obviously,but the bee's most likely don't know this,they just want a new queen and you keep breaking down the attempts to achieve there ambition.

 

[Polyanwood]

I had queens get mated at this time of year, but that is in balmy London... you are right Hivemaker, not very likley in Staffordshire

 

[666bees]

I thought it may have been because she was short of space, it was a nuc this year in July and was fine but I didn't put the super on quick enough which caused them to produce a queen cell. But now they have drawn the super out which has been placed on the bottom and another super with foundation has been placed on top with the brood in the middle.

 

[Polyanwood]

If they are short of space in spring and summer they make lots of queen cells as swarm cells. If only one cell it is usually supersedure which usually happens outside swarm season. no relationship between supersedure and space.

 

[666bees]

Not sure what to do now whether to risk leaving the cells alone or keep pulling the down until spring when any new queen would have a chance at getting mated.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I thought it may have been because she was short of space, it was a nuc this year in July and was fine but I didn't put the super on quick enough which caused them to produce a queen cell. But now they have drawn the super out which has been placed on the bottom and another super with foundation has been placed on top with the brood in the middle.

are you saying you place a super under the brood box, if so why was this needed underneath the brood as you cannot easily inspect


in your brood box how many stores frames ( those that are mainly capped honey)and how many brood frames are they on now ( eggs larva,capped brood)

in the supers how many capped frames are there above the QE and how many capped frames are there in the other super wheeever that is

 

[666bees]

The super was full of stores and people said to place it below the brood box so in the spring the queen would be found laying in brood box.
brood box has 2 frames sealed store the rest brood , the 2nd super was put above the brood box incase they needed anymore space.

 

[666bees]

There seems load of bees Ive never seen so many before and they weren't over happy to day with me inspecting.

 

[Finman]

No.... would most likely not get mated..depends on the weather and drones obviously,but the bee's most likely don't know this,they just want a new queen and you keep breaking down the attempts to achieve there ambition.

it is like hivemaker says. They are going to change the queen and they will do it.
Only way is get a new queen or join the hive.

 

[666bees]

Thanks for all the advise, Ill have to decide what to do.

 

[oliver90owner]

666bees,

All you have done so far, and you don't tell us for how many weeks you have been breaking down these queen cells, is make the attempted supercedure later and later; at least 2 weeks later, possibly more?

You obviously have had a laying queen present with these cells. There is no reason to believe she would not have continued to lay while the new queen mated and came into lay. Getting later and later, so the chances of the new queen mating satisfactorily are diminishing by the day. The chance of your queen failing are increasing day by day.

Depends now on the weather and how many drones are still around. Bad call on your part when breaking down the first cell. Sorry, but that is the bottom line.

You say: The queen cell is always at the bottom of a frame, is that a supercedures one.

A few seconds thought would answer that question; there is still a laying queen present?

If that cell had been for any other purpose, and there is only one, they would have departed when the cell was sealed, would they not?

Regards, RAB

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

I'd been told/read somewhere that QCs at the bottom were swarm cells and QCs halfway up were supercedure - is that rubbish (or have I got it the wrong way around)?

 

[drstitson]

supercedure/swarm cells

This is quite a well thought out piece:

http:// www . beesource . com/point-of-view/walt-wright/are-they-supersedure-or-swarm-cells/

 

[drstitson]

supercedure/swarm cells

supercedure cells will tend to be built around existing eggs/larvae hence appearing in warm area of brood pattern whilst swarm cells are planned in advance and built elsewhere.