Queen cells?

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Torq

Field Bee
***
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
505
Reaction score
9
Location
Athlone. Co. Westmeath. Ireland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
4 Hives, 4 Nucs.
Hi Guys,
just got my first Nuc last weekend and my uncle transfered the frames to the brood box on monday and gave them a bucket of syrup to welcome them to their new home. Neither of us have ever seen the inside of a working hive before so it's all new to us.

Today I did an inspection, my first ever, to check for the queen, on my second sweep I found her (yellow dot gave her away) but I also found what look like queen cells and one appears to be capped. We got the nuc from a local commercial keeper with 180 colonies and 3 generations of experience so the stock should be good.

So... Should I be worried about this cell and go back in tomorrow and destroy it if it's not too late! I don't know if the queen is laying as I didn't look closely enough (first time nerves) but did find a dead larva at the entrance to the hive.

Thanks in advance!

Torq
 
A pic of the offending cell just to confirm is always good
kev
 
Hi Guys,
just got my first Nuc last weekend and my uncle transfered the frames to the brood box on monday and gave them a bucket of syrup to welcome them to their new home. Neither of us have ever seen the inside of a working hive before so it's all new to us.

Today I did an inspection, my first ever, to check for the queen, on my second sweep I found her (yellow dot gave her away) but I also found what look like queen cells and one appears to be capped. We got the nuc from a local commercial keeper with 180 colonies and 3 generations of experience so the stock should be good.

So... Should I be worried about this cell and go back in tomorrow and destroy it if it's not too late! I don't know if the queen is laying as I didn't look closely enough (first time nerves) but did find a dead larva at the entrance to the hive.

Thanks in advance!

Torq

yes worry can you post photo, ie is it a proper capped QC

a capped QC is in a Nuc unusual and can mean 1) they are honey bound or 2) they dont like the queen and trying to superscede

first phone up the man who sold it to you and ask what breed of bee and say you have a capped cell, see what he says

if you have lots of eggs & grub, you could knock it down but before you do

look at the brood area, is it full of honey near the capped brood cells or is it pepperpot with bumps of bullet cells ( male drone)

THEN POST ON HERE WHAT YOU SEE, we need a bit more info to help
 
Crisis over (I hope)

Hi Guys,
had another look this morning and it looks like I've just got 3 queen cups and not a closed queen cell as I thought. Had a look inside the cups and they were unoccupied so I broke them down. Now that the initial first time fear is over I had a good look at the frames, There are good number of uncapped brood with occupants of varying sizes. capped brood with the odd drone cap here and there. Pollen and honey in the outer cells and quite a few young fury bees wandering about the frames. So I'm thinking things are ok.

Thanks

Torq

P.S. Did I take any pics? No I forgot! Too preoccupied with looking for the queen cells.
 
Hi Guys,
had another look this morning and it looks like I've just got 3 queen cups and not a closed queen cell as I thought. Had a look inside the cups and they were unoccupied so I broke them down. Now that the initial first time fear is over I had a good look at the frames, There are good number of uncapped brood with occupants of varying sizes. capped brood with the odd drone cap here and there. Pollen and honey in the outer cells and quite a few young fury bees wandering about the frames. So I'm thinking things are ok.

Thanks

Torq

P.S. Did I take any pics? No I forgot! Too preoccupied with looking for the queen cells.


Good, thats the best outcome...but remember they are Bees, and they aint read any books nor do they have broadband

from the man who missed a capped QC when installing a free Nuc :redface:....did a hive inspection five days after installing only to see a caste issue as i arrived at the hive
 
I've removed a capped QC intact; here it is, it's sitting next to me in my study. What to do with it!?
 
I would be happy to, cos she comes from a lovely mum!
 

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