Sealed queen cell in polynuc.. Please help

[sueasp]

Hi.
This is my 2nd year and I'm in a right pickle!
The mistake:
I followed some bad advice that it would be OK to move my hive across my garden. (Yes I know how daft that was!)
Unsurprisingly .... Loads of bees flew back to the original spot.
The current situation:
I've got a poly nuc on the original site to collect the returners. I gave them a frame of sealed brood too.....the poly nuc now also has a sealed queen cell.
The moved hive looks like it's hatched a queen cell. I couldn't find a queen.
The moved hive has a number of empty frames in the brood box as I gave a friend 5 frames and a sealed queen cell in an attempt at swarm prevention last week.
Hope that's clear.
The question:
Should I move the frame with sealed queen cell into the moved hive if there's def no queen in there .... Or should I assume that the old queens swarmed and the hatched one is in there.... So I leave them alone?

I also have a new colony in a new hive.

 

[wightbees]

Can you give the moved hive some open Brood to see what's happening in there? Then this will give you a better understanding of what's going on. You could have a new Queen in the moved hive.

 

[pargyle]

Hi.
This is my 2nd year and I'm in a right pickle!
The mistake:
I followed some bad advice that it would be OK to move my hive across my garden. (Yes I know how daft that was!)
Unsurprisingly .... Loads of bees flew back to the original spot.
The current situation:
I've got a poly nuc on the original site to collect the returners. I gave them a frame of sealed brood too.....the poly nuc now also has a sealed queen cell.
The moved hive looks like it's hatched a queen cell. I couldn't find a queen.
The moved hive has a number of empty frames in the brood box as I gave a friend 5 frames and a sealed queen cell in an attempt at swarm prevention last week.
Hope that's clear.
The question:
Should I move the frame with sealed queen cell into the moved hive if there's def no queen in there .... Or should I assume that the old queens swarmed and the hatched one is in there.... So I leave them alone?

I also have a new colony in a new hive.

Well ... a few mistakes but don't beat yourself up about it. We all get in a mess once in a while, the first couple of years are a steep learning curve. So ... Mistakes (not really mistakes, let's call them errors in judgement).

1. You already know about.. only ever move bees three feet at a time ,, you can do this almost on a daily basis until you get where you want. Alternatively, three miles away for about 10 days and you can then move them wherever you want.

2. When you put a box on the original site to collect stragglers the idea is not to make them too comfortable ... an EMPTY box, no frames and certainly no sealed brood. Then, on a daily basis - preferably in the evening when they have stopped flying. You tip them into the hive that you have moved every day until eventually the idiots who don't get the fact that they have moved (and there's always a handful of dimwits that NEVER get it) give up.

3. What you have done by putting a frame of brood in there is effectively done a split ... there must have been either an egg or a young larvae and they have decided to make a queen. Not surprising really ... make a colony queenless and give them the wherewithall to make a queen and they usually will.

4. Removing frames and giving away queen cells is not swarm prevention .. you need to read Wally Shaw's pamphlet - 'I have Queen cells in my hive'. Youd will find it free with a google search. Read it until you understand what you need to do - pick a swarm control method you like, learn it and stick to it. No variations. But that's for the future ...

5. Your original hive has probably swarmed - if there's a sealed queen cell in there the odds are your queen has gone with a swarm. If there is an open queen celll (with a lid prised off - not an open one that has not been sealed), she's definitely gone and you probably have a vigin in there.

6. It's a bit odd that you only found one queen cell in there as one queen cell usually means either an emergency queen or a supercedure .. is there a chance that you gave away your queen along with the frames you gave away ? You may still have a virgin in there and with luck, this is what happened, and they have not swarmed.

Your only course of action now is to check your original hive for any more queen cells as there is a chance that they will swarm again if there was more than one queen cell and you did not find it.

You are then going to have to leave both colonies alone for about a couple of weeks to give the virgins time to mate. Once you have eggs and brood in both hives you can either squish one queen and combine the two colonies, sell the nuc or give it away or prepare yourself to become a three hive owner.

If you don't already have it I suggest strongly that you buy a copy of the Haynes Manual of Beekeeping - it's not perfect but it will keep you on the right track most of the time. In addition, I would be very careful, in future, who you ask for advice.

Not the end of the world - the bees will usually sort themselves out - despite what we inflict on them.

 

[sueasp]

Wightbees - thanks for your reply, but I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean.

Pargyle ... Thanks so much for your understanding and kind reply. Thanks. Yes, I'm hoping that I have virgin queens.


2. I've been moving the nuc box 3 feet at a time towards the new site. Shall I keep doing this rather than tipping them in .... On the grounds of what I've already done .... And the sealed queen cell in there?

4. I will def get myself that thanks.

6. I think we saw the queen safely in the hive when the frames were removed.

I am reassured by you saying that they usually sort themselves out. Thanks.

 

[Anduril]

The queen cell being built in the nuc will probably turn out to be a scrub queen and not be any good.

 

[Eyeman]

Wightbees - thanks for your reply, but I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean.

Pargyle ... Thanks so much for your understanding and kind reply. Thanks. Yes, I'm hoping that I have virgin queens.


2. I've been moving the nuc box 3 feet at a time towards the new site. Shall I keep doing this rather than tipping them in .... On the grounds of what I've already done .... And the sealed queen cell in there?

4. I will def get myself that thanks.

6. I think we saw the queen safely in the hive when the frames were removed.

I am reassured by you saying that they usually sort themselves out. Thanks.

Wightbees is asking you to give the moved hive a 'test frame' from your new colony- that is a frame with eggs/young larvae. If the moved hive produces queen cells on the test frame then you know they are queen less.

 

[pargyle]

Wightbees is asking you to give the moved hive a 'test frame' from your new colony- that is a frame with eggs/young larvae. If the moved hive produces queen cells on the test frame then you know they are queen less.

Well ... Yes she could but at present she only has one hive with a laying queen (I assume the 'other' colony the OP has is performing) and I think it's a waste of a whole frame of eggs/brood when a bit of patience and she will know in a week or two whether there is a laying queen in either the Nuc or the original hive as there will either be eggs/larvae or there won't. Another couple of weeks will give her other colony longer to get established and if there is still no sign of eggs/larvae you can put a frame in at that stage ... or beg or buy a laying queen. Bound to be some spare by June.

I can see no harm in continuing to move the nuc if you want to relocate it .. just make sure you do it at night when they are not flying.

The sealed queen cell is a bit odd and I don't have an explanation on the basis of what we know .. so, what I would do is leave it and see what happens .. like I said .. may just be a queen in the making - precious little you can do about it at this stage, let the bees get on with it.