Sealed queen cells

[Mymwood]

New beek. I now have 3 hives, one bought at auction and two from nucs. Put them on our small farm and then suffered the anxst of choosing a bad site where they few right across my daughters all-weather horse arena, result horse stung, me stung, .... bees have to move, and after just a week!

Bee inspector came, chap called Dave, was a real pleasure to watch a pro go through the three hives, smooth, quiet, gentle, well practiced, not at all like me! We found all three queens and the result was good for all three colonies.

Then came the re-location. Sought local advice, so moved up to a friends little orchard. Did the move on my own, which was challenging, and had no leaks or disasters. It was quite worrying but seemed to go ok. I had been feeding the nucs ambrosia so I continued this.

The auction bought colony was the one that did the stinging at home. When the insp checked them they started off a little aggresive but soon settled down as they were smoked. As they were rather congested he agreed with a suggestion that the supplier had made, that I add a 1/2 brood (super) above the brood box, to encourage the brood to expand. This we did. A few days later I movd them to the orchard.

8 days after move I went to open them , which is the reason for this post, to gather thoughts. THat day, bit rainy, very little traffic to and from the entrance. A couple of days after installing there had been a lot of traffic. Checks on nucs went fine, even found the queens. Then came the established colony...

Smoked entrance, waited couple of minutes. Opened up. Honey super filling nicely, but then... on checking the 1/2 brood I found it had been well drawn but then filled with stores!! The feeder was empty by the way. No brood at all in the 1/2 brood box. Just drawn comb and store. By this time they were not pleased with my presence. It was starting to rain so I decided to call a halt before looking into the brood box. Gloves were picking up stings as was the suit. Noise was escalating as well.

Took advice on this forum and switched the brood super to below the brood box. That was a week ago. On that day I noticed, again, that the amount of traffic from the entrance had decreased dramatically. When they were at our home the entrance was a mass of activity, now, only 2 or 3 coming in and departing every ten seconds or so.

I open up today. Honey super well drawn and filling nicely. Brood looking very busy... but cant find any eggs (not saying there arent any just i cant see any) AND, on the 2nd frame I check I find a sealed queen cell. Not seen a sealed one before. I decide to open it and, wow, out pops a live queen that scuttles away before I can react. I didnt search for her as I wasnt sure what to do even if I found her. Then... on subsequent frames I found several more sealed queen cells. Lots of sealed brood as well. All the Q cells were on the main part of the frame (fairly central) not at the bottom. I left them, not really sure what to do. I looked for the old queen but couldnt find her.

Had to ask myself, is the reduced entrance activity because the old queen has already swarmed? Or is there about to be a swarm? Should add that they were a tad grumpy today, my gloves and lower arms picking up quite a few stings. Also, after closing up they really followed and pestered me. Had to despatch several before I could remove the protection of the suit.

Mart

 

[drstitson]

swarmed.

 

[milkermel]

if the Queen cell is sealed then your colony has swarmed. leave them to do thier thing, If you have cells then they should bring on a queen. Weather isnt great but in my limited experience if you have a queen to keep them happy then ideal. I have heard people comment that drones are being kicked out of hive and implying that its getting late for mateing ( dont ask me I havent a clue!!) but if she turns out to not be great then next year replace her.
I would imagine that because you kept feeding they just moved it all down to store which obviously reduced queens laying space making them think it was time to move house.

There will be some experts around shortly I expect!

 

[northernsoul]

Yes swarmed.
You've now potentially got a problem.
You need to go back to hive and find the q you released and destroy all the other cells otherwise the colony will keep casting.

Not too late for mating

When you've done this leave the hive alone for at least 3 weeks and then go back and look for brood/eggs

 

[Mymwood]

if i cant get back will the queens sort out who is boss, leaving just one?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Oh yes,they will sort it out,a few more may leave, but one will usually remain, and a few bees.

 

[jezd]

Having capped queen cells does not always mean they have swarmed, however a lack of flying bees is the sure sign of a swarmed colony - I always know when a hive has swarmed before finding QC's - capped QC's just means the hive is ready to swarm, for every rule you write down the bees will break it mind hives can swarm with no capped QC's, QC's can be capped early too

 

[Hivemaker.]

Having capped queen cells does not always mean they have swarmed, however a lack of flying bees is the sure sign of a swarmed colony - I always know when a hive has swarmed before finding QC's - capped QC's just means the hive is ready to swarm, for every rule you write down the bees will break it mind hives can swarm with no capped QC's, QC's can be capped early too

This one is just a bit more than capped cells at the moment though Jez,it has a virgin running around as well.

 

[northernsoul]

Problem with leaving the bees to sort it out may mean that they cast so many times the colony might be left with only a handful of bees which may not make the colony viable given we are in the third week of July.

Sort it out if you can

 

[susbees]

Problem with leaving the bees to sort it out may mean that they cast so many times the colony might be left with only a handful of bees which may not make the colony viable given we are in the third week of July.

Sort it out if you can

 

[Mymwood]

called out this eve by the orchard owner, the bees were swarming. I managed to get help from a local beek. The swarm was a big one and he didnt think it was a secondary swarm, most likely the original queen. So, it seems that when I inspected they were preparing to swarm? We caught up with them about 50 yds from the hive in some bracken. It had just rained and they were nearly at ground level. We boxed them up and brought them home to my place where we installed them in a brood box with QE above and below the bb. Also some drawn empty brood frame in the bb. Fingers crossed that I have saved them.

 

[susbees]

called out this eve by the orchard owner, the bees were swarming. I managed to get help from a local beek. The swarm was a big one and he didnt think it was a secondary swarm, most likely the original queen. So, it seems that when I inspected they were preparing to swarm? We caught up with them about 50 yds from the hive in some bracken. It had just rained and they were nearly at ground level. We boxed them up and brought them home to my place where we installed them in a brood box with QE above and below the bb. Also some drawn empty brood frame in the bb. Fingers crossed that I have saved them.

But what did you do with the queen cells in the original hive?? Not good for relations if orchard owner has to call you out repeatedly for random cast swarms following!

 

[drstitson]

mymwood - the FERA/welsh assembly booklet on queen cells makes for good reading:

http://pembsbeekeepers.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/wag_queen_cellseng.pdf

 

[Mymwood]

homed the swarm in a hive at our little farm. Had to go away for the weekend so gave them a little pot of sugar syrup and left them to it. Came back today, checked, still in place and very active. Where I had poured them into the brood box I had left three frames out. They had formed a large amount of comb in this empty space. Shame to remove the fruits of such hard labour but had to do so in order to insert frames. Queen present. Lots of drawing of frames going on together with syrup and pollen store build up. Interestingly, even though these are the bees from the hive that were quite stroppy a week or so ago, today they were a real pleasure to work with, very agreeable. I didnt smoke them first and not a single bee attempted to sting. Plan to pop up to the orchard tomorrow to remove the excess sealed queen cells.

 

[Mymwood]

that link was a good read... nice simple advice on what to do in each situation that may arise. thanks drstitson

 

[Mymwood]

Checked today prepared to dispose of all but one sealed q cell. Found one on fourth frame in, then no more. The cells I had previously seen were gone, completely. The hive itself was very busy. All the stores previously seen in the lower brood super had been moved up above the QE into the honey super. (or did the departing swarm take them maybe?) The brood super (below the bb and above the varroa floor) was well drawn but with no sign of eggs or larvae. Brood box had loads of bees in it and a lot of sealed brood, pollen, stores.

Before opening I had watched the entrance and saw lots of incoming traffic bearing pollen. And today they were really easy to handle. No stings or aggression at all. And they didnt follow me after I closed them up.

Back at home the swarm has settled in well. Lots of comb being drawn and evidence of pollen and honey store. No eggs as yet though. Suspect it wont be long.

Feel a lot happier than last week, and now it seems I have 4 hives instead of three.

Mart.

 

[drstitson]

if you had a virgin emerge for you, presumably after original queen had left with prime swarm, then the other 4 cells will almost certainly have been of similar age.

so you will have had 1-4 more virgins emerge, and hence your cast swarm.

re the cells - workers may take them down very soon after emergence or after deciding on keeping the first emerged queen. the still sealed cell was either duff or has been resealed.

 

[Mymwood]

ah... so that swarm may well have been a cast swarm with a virgin queen?

Checked this new colony yesterday. Still drawing out the foundation at great speed. Evidence of nectar and pollen being stored. Friendly reception. Is this Q likely to go search of some drones soon? There is an apiary across our valley, perhaps 400 yds, with 4 hives so I guess there will be a drone area nearby.

One of my nucs is smaller than the other. What might be your thoughts on whether I should combine the two colonies, the cast swarm and the weaker nuc?