Sealed queen cells

[Allie M]

Hello, apologies as always for asking a question that’s probably been asked and answered a few times before. On my inspection today I found two sealed QC, a few more unsealed and uncharged. But I was also fortunate to find the queen and I have put her in a nuc with brood, feed and hopefully enough young bees.

However rather than leaving a couple of nice unsealed QC as I now realise I should have done, I left the largest most sculpted sealed cell.

My question is how long to leave the hive alone so the new queen can emerge, mate and then start laying. I guess I need to check for emergency QCs in the next week?

Many thanks

Alison

 

[Wilco]

Check back in six days but only to check for numbers of EQCs. If the big QC has emerged then knock them all down and leave for a couple of weeks.

If it hasn't then leave one, maybe two, good open emergency cells.

Then leave alone for a few weeks.

If not emerged and no emergency QCs then there are two possibilities. Either she's about to emerge and you need to leave well alone or you need to stick in a frame of eggs and young larvae from a nice colony and repeat the process.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Alison
This is a really handy document to have
https://wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wbka-booklet-english-PDF.pdf

 

[Allie M]

Thanks so much Wilco and Dani