Queen cups in September?

[BBC]

Should I be concerned about the appearance of several queen cups in one of my hives?

 

[Murox]

Should I be concerned about the appearance of several queen cups in one of my hives?

Have a look at posts 2 & 3 of this forum link.

 

[enrico]

A short answer .... No.

 

[BBC]

Reassuring as ever. Thank you.

 

[nettle]

I thought we were safely past swarm season now, especially up here, but someone I know in the Cairngorms caught a huge swarm a couple of days ago. Something to bear in mind!

 

[BBC]

I do believe bees are capable of swarming at any time (although rarer in colder seasons). But I am being vigilant and will intercept any attempts with an AS if required thanks.
That said, I would have thought swarming now is a very high risk strategy and difficult to come back from. A last resort perhaps.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I picked a swarm up on the 2nd September this year but I’m in the sunny south. My previous latest was 1st September.

 

[BBC]

Not feeling so reassured now…..

 

[JamezF]

I've still got bait hives out, just in case. Latest I've seen here is 7th August, so I'll probably collect them all this weekend.

James

 

[Do224]

I've still got bait hives out, just in case. Latest I've seen here is 7th August, so I'll probably collect them all this weekend.

James

Are you still seeing scouts? I’ve not had any bees interested in my bait hives since mid July

 

[JamezF]

Are you still seeing scouts? I’ve not had any bees interested in my bait hives since mid July

Some of the bait hives are in out apiaries, so I might well not notice. One of those is within a few tens of metres of at least two, probably three, feral colonies where I saw the late swarm I mentioned. I've not seen any activity at all around my bait hives at home though.

I'm really not expecting anything, but if a colony somewhere swarms and does move in then it saves me the work of going out and collecting it

James

 

[enrico]

Not feeling so reassured now…..

As long as they are queen cups I stand by my statement. It is when the cups become the start if a queen cell you need to keep an eye open.

 

[BBC]

Re-reassured thanks Enrico