queen cup

[Morgan968]

Hi Everyone,

Me again, Ive been through one of my hives and its been playing on my mind since i did it, The inspection was going well and everything normal, this is an overwintered nuc I've had for about a month. Got into the new frames I placed in the brood with the nuc and came across a queen cup in the middle of the frame with royal jelly in. They had finished drawing all the frames so I did add a super but now thinking about it are they looking to replace the queen.

Am I right to think this would be a supersedure situation, as if it was swarm cells, surly there would be a few, unless I managed to miss any. I'm heading back on saturday as this would fall into my weekly inspections to see what they would of done since last week. So just wondering what peoples thought are before I make a decision as to what I'll do with them

 

[Swarm]

Go back sooner than that, tomorrow would be good, find your queen and make sure there are no cells on her frame before putting her in a nuc.
Having noted the frame with the cell, examine all the others thoroughly. Shake the bees off the frames. When you are happy there are no cells on them, add a comb with no brood, comb of stores, spare comb or foundation to make up the rest of the nuc. Place her in a new position.

Leave one cell with the colony and go back in five days to squash any others.

 

[Morgan968]

Go back sooner than that, tomorrow would be good, find your queen and make sure there are no cells on her frame before putting her in a nuc.
Having noted the frame with the cell, examine all the others thoroughly. Shake the bees off the frames. When you are happy there are no cells on them, add a comb with no brood, comb of stores, spare comb or foundation to make up the rest of the nuc. Place her in a new position.

Leave one cell with the colony and go back in five days to squash any others.

Thanks for that, should I shake some of the bees off into the nuc so there'll be some more worker bee's with the queen, also is there any tips when placing the nuc in the same apriay regarding the rest of the colony not trying to fly to the nuc or wont they do this due to them not having a queen?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

also is there any tips when placing the nuc in the same apriay regarding the rest of the colony not trying to fly to the nuc or wont they do this due to them not having a queen?

It is actually better to have the nuc in the same apiary as the 'mother hive' as you want all the foraging bees to leave the nuc and fly back to the main colony - the fliers are the swarm instigators so if they stay with the queen (let's say you moved the nuc three miles away) then there is still a chance (and it has been reported on more than one occasion) that they could swarm.
Just shake two or three frames of bees into the nuc - once the fliers return to the main hive you should be left with a decent number in the nuc.
I did exactly this with a suspected supersedure yesterday - no point in taking a risk just because someone tells you they've read it in a book that they definitely won't swarm.
If it is supersedure, they will quickly make another QC in the nuc so, by the end of the summer you should hopefully have a hive and a strong nuc bith with this year's queen in.