jonotaylor
New Bee
Hi there,
I'm pretty new to this so please bear with me. My queen is coming into her third year - in her first year with a new nuc, she did well, and there was even a surplus super to get honey from last. Last year I had a bit of a disaster and the poly lid blew off my hive and water got in before I noticed. I decided not to harvest and left them a full super of honey for overwinter, and fed them syrup a couple of times as well.
I've opened the hive today for a Spring check, and found that the super remains full of what appears to be a mix of old and new capped honey cells. Then in the brood box, I found 2 frames pretty much empty, then a few with a mix of capped honey and (I think) capped worker cells, then two with maybe a third of the surface with capped worker cells / cells where larvae were visible.
There were also maybe 10 or so quite raised cells (within the main part of the frames rather than around the edges), which I wondered whether they were supercedure cells.
I can try and take a few pics next time I check, as I realise it's probably hard to advise based on this limited description. But I had a few questions nevertheless:
1. Does the description of the brood box contents sound about right for this time of year, or would people expect more worker cells?
2. What should I do about the raised cells I found?
3. With it being the queen's third year, should I start to think about replacing her? If so, should I be thinking of buying a new queen or, if left to their own devices, will the bees raise a suitable new queen on their own?
I'm pretty new to this so please bear with me. My queen is coming into her third year - in her first year with a new nuc, she did well, and there was even a surplus super to get honey from last. Last year I had a bit of a disaster and the poly lid blew off my hive and water got in before I noticed. I decided not to harvest and left them a full super of honey for overwinter, and fed them syrup a couple of times as well.
I've opened the hive today for a Spring check, and found that the super remains full of what appears to be a mix of old and new capped honey cells. Then in the brood box, I found 2 frames pretty much empty, then a few with a mix of capped honey and (I think) capped worker cells, then two with maybe a third of the surface with capped worker cells / cells where larvae were visible.
There were also maybe 10 or so quite raised cells (within the main part of the frames rather than around the edges), which I wondered whether they were supercedure cells.
I can try and take a few pics next time I check, as I realise it's probably hard to advise based on this limited description. But I had a few questions nevertheless:
1. Does the description of the brood box contents sound about right for this time of year, or would people expect more worker cells?
2. What should I do about the raised cells I found?
3. With it being the queen's third year, should I start to think about replacing her? If so, should I be thinking of buying a new queen or, if left to their own devices, will the bees raise a suitable new queen on their own?