Queen cells

[Goshawk]

Hello all. I recently found several queen cell elongated so I moved the queen out, destroyed all but two and waited. The split is good and lots of brood. The queen cells can no longer be seen, I went back into the hive to see the empty queen cells after they had emerged but could not find any, so the question is do they recycle the wax from the queen cell once they have emerged. I have no worry that there is a queen as they have eggs and brood

 

[B+.]

Hello all. I recently found several queen cell elongated so I moved the queen out, destroyed all but two and waited. The split is good and lots of brood. The queen cells can no longer be seen, I went back into the hive to see the empty queen cells after they had emerged but could not find any, so the question is do they recycle the wax from the queen cell once they have emerged. I have no worry that there is a queen as they have eggs and brood

Yes.
Wax is a valuable commodity to bees and they will frequently re-use it.

EDIT: When there is a nectar flow on and the colony is expanding, there is usually lots of young bees hanging from the bottom bar in clusters. These are wax producers. When you have this new white wax being produced, they'll not bother with dark older wax, but, in periods of dearth, they will often take wax from one place and re-use it elsewhere. Anyone who has left frames of foundation on during a dearth will see holes develop at the top of the bars (and sometimes at the bottom) where the bees have removed wax so it can be used elsewhere.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

, I went back into the hive to see the empty queen cells after they had emerged but could not find any, so the question is do they recycle the wax from the queen cell once they have emerged.

Yes, not always, but often

 

[Finman]

Hello all. I recently found several queen cell elongated so I moved the queen out, destroyed all but two and waited. The split is good and lots of brood. The queen cells can no longer be seen, I went back into the hive to see the empty queen cells after they had emerged but could not find any, so the question is do they recycle the wax from the queen cell once they have emerged. I have no worry that there is a queen as they have eggs and brood

2 queen cells. They are able to swarm.
You cannot destroy swarm fever with destroying swarm cells. It is very rare, if it works.

 

[oliver90owner]

Goshawk, your method was sound. Perhaps better, had you artificially swarmed the hive as per Pagden.

When I was increasing my colonies, if the queen was one I was wanting to breed from, I would have split the queen away and also split the rest of the colony (possibly to several) each with one or two queen cells, later evaluating those raised queens before deciding which to keep for the coming season.

These (several) splits were less likely to swarm when a new queen emerged, than from a crowed colony where more workers were emerging every day for perhaps three weeks after removing the queen.

This season is an awkward one. Early June emergent queens were my ‘target’ date, but you take what you can get.

 

[ericbeaumont]

2 queen cells. They are able to swarm.

Goshawk, your method was sound.

Both correct?

Goshawk may have been lucky with the weather: if poor, they may have settled for re-queening rather than going out; seen many torn-down cells this year.

I leave one in the main colony; the splits decide which to choose and are unlikely to swarm.

 

[Goshawk]

2 queen cells. They are able to swarm.
You cannot destroy swarm fever with destroying swarm cells. It is very rare, if it works.

The weather I think is too bad to swarm this year so my main concern was one queen wins and I do not have a queen less hive. I think in better years I should have split the queens to nuc boxes

 

[Goshawk]

Both correct?

Goshawk may have been lucky with the weather: if poor, they may have settled for re-queening rather than going out; seen many torn-down cells this year.

I leave one in the main colony; the splits decide which to choose and are unlikely to swarm.

Thanks I think you are correct re the weather this year.

 

[Goshawk]

Goshawk, your method was sound. Perhaps better, had you artificially swarmed the hive as per Pagden.

When I was increasing my colonies, if the queen was one I was wanting to breed from, I would have split the queen away and also split the rest of the colony (possibly to several) each with one or two queen cells, later evaluating those raised queens before deciding which to keep for the coming season.

These (several) splits were less likely to swarm when a new queen emerged, than from a crowed colony where more workers were emerging every day for perhaps three weeks after removing the queen.

This season is an awkward one. Early June emergent queens were my ‘target’ date, but you take what you can get.

Thank you good advice and reasoning, I agree this is a strange year weather wise.