queen cells - swarms

[masterBK]

if you want to be posh : "incipient queen cells"

 

[shudderdun]

POSTED THIS EARLIER!, I DIDNT WORD IT VERY WELL, I WAS REFERING TO THE DRONE BROOD BEING A GOOD OR BAD SIGN AND WHY ------- THANKS

Inspected my colonies last week, they had LOTS of store, both sealed and unsealed brood, also a small amount of sealed drone brood, about 40mm in diameter.

Can someone please tell me if this is a good or bad sign this early and why ?

Thank you.

 

[beehive1234]

Calm down calm down ..............
Not absolutely sure but I get the feeling it is normal for this time of year. How else will the new queens be mated.

 

[Skyhook]

Shudderdun- I would say it's neither good nor bad. Raising drones CAN be a first sign of swarm preparations- however most, if not all colonies will have drones from spring to autumn, and only a proportion will swarm. The only thing you can say is that, if a colony has no drones, they're probably not thinking about swarming.

It sounds as if your colony is building up nicely, just keep monitoring for charged queen cells as you would normally.

Considering what a bad year it was for mating last year, it's not impossible some colonies may want to supercede, so observe carefully and don't jump to any conclusions.

To answer the OP- someone reported collecting a swarm in Wiltshire a few days ago, which led me to take the congestion in my strongest hive seriously, and super.

.

 

[Cazza]

POSTED THIS EARLIER!, I DIDNT WORD IT VERY WELL, I WAS REFERING TO THE DRONE BROOD BEING A GOOD OR BAD SIGN AND WHY ------- THANKS

Inspected my colonies last week, they had LOTS of store, both sealed and unsealed brood, also a small amount of sealed drone brood, about 40mm in diameter.

Can someone please tell me if this is a good or bad sign this early and why ?

Thank you.

It is entirely normal and nothing to need to mull over.
Cazza

 

[beeno]

Hi shudderdun,
There are no guarantees in this game. I think the way to view it is that they will not swarm before they have made themselves some drones, but you need other triggers as well for them to swarm i.e. too many stores clogging up the brood nest so that HM has nowhere to lay, too many bees so that the colony feels crowded including poor ventilation. It would appear to be normal from what I have seen for colonies to have drones this time of the year whether they swarm or not depends on other variables I would say. Hope this helps!

 

[shudderdun]

Thank you for your replies Skyhook, Cazza, Beeno and all.

I hope to go through them today for a second inspection, temps are supposed to get up to 16 c but expect to be higher than they say, hopefully !

I did have three brood frames full of honey store last Monday, also frames with brood and grubs and of course that DB. This is a hive I united last year with one I thought was Queenless, then what happened that weak colony decided there was a Q and she started to lay !

Got it through the winter, after closing the area inside the BB right down and fed fondant, she is still there and laying. I am feeding that weak colony 2/2, I also gave them frame of honey store from that strong hive (my third colony is also strong).

Now going into my third season, dont think I would have got this far without the help from this Forum, Thanks.

 

[itma]

POSTED THIS EARLIER!, I DIDNT WORD IT VERY WELL, I WAS REFERING TO THE DRONE BROOD BEING A GOOD OR BAD SIGN AND WHY ------- THANKS

There are few absolutes in beekeeping.

Some drone brood is a sign of normality during the season - if it is in patches, and accounts for less than (about) 10% of all sealed brood.

It is not a sign of normality if there's only drone brood, or it is scattered randomly around the brood, or if it is the wrong time of year (ie when nobody could call it spring or summer).

Normality is (normally) good.

 

[Excession]

Ther have been no reproduction swarms in London I have heard of yet. There have been a couple of what I think were starvation swarms.

Starvation swarm? That's a new one on me.

Can you explain the logic? Why would a colony low on stores, leave its only store repository (itself a valuable resource), and and put itself in a situation where resources required are even higher? (To make comb for brood and stores)

I have not heard of this before, my understanding was if they are starving, then they die.

Sounds suspiciously like nonsense to me, but happy to be enlightened!

 

[Finman]

I have not heard of this before, my understanding was if they are starving, then they die.
!

That is true. Bees do not know do they have food stores or not. They live or die.

 

[masterBK]

When things are bad some colonies abscond in mass from the hive but is this technically swarming? I have only personally seen this happen three times in the last 50 yrs. I believe absconding is more common in the tropics

 

[Peterwh]

Ref starvation swarms: In any case, if such a thing did exist, how would anyone know that's what it was?

 

[Easy Beesy]

This may be a stupid question but are play cups the same as what some beekeepers call false cells?

Not a stupid question - I've never heard the expression "false cells" and would have been confused too.

 

[Easy Beesy]

POSTED THIS EARLIER!, I DIDNT WORD IT VERY WELL, I WAS REFERING TO THE DRONE BROOD BEING A GOOD OR BAD SIGN AND WHY ------- THANKS

Inspected my colonies last week, they had LOTS of store, both sealed and unsealed brood, also a small amount of sealed drone brood, about 40mm in diameter.

Can someone please tell me if this is a good or bad sign this early and why ?

Thank you.

All sounds pretty normal to me.

 

[Easy Beesy]

Got it through the winter, after closing the area inside the BB right down and fed fondant, she is still there and laying. I am feeding that weak colony 2/2, I also gave them frame of honey store from that strong hive (my third colony is also strong).
.

Another (maybe) stupid question - what's 2/2 feed? Is it same as 1:1?

 

[Finman]

Another (maybe) stupid question - what's 2/2 feed? Is it same as 1:1?

Of course it is a douple dose. Two unit sugar and two unit water. What else it can be?

 

[shudderdun]

Oop's, typing error should read 2/1 !!!!!

 

[Finman]

Oop's, typing error should read 2/1 !!!!!

OH, it can

 

[psafloyd]

I found a play cup in my first inspection, I wasn't that worried because I've got a brand new empty hive sitting ready to put some bees in. However; what are play cups for?

They simply prepare for when they will need them later. Like we are supposed t do, but not all of us (mea culpa) achieve.

 

[psafloyd]

Not seen any drone brood yet this year,,except DLQs, though only opened up fully about 20 Hives

I have drone brood in my biggest colony (big) and just starting to lay some in the second. None on the comb, mind.

However, a neighbour of mine has drones walking the comb, brood and seems to be a bit further on than mine.