single swarm cell from best colony

[Fiafrati]

I have a colony that is the best one i have ever had and i want to requeen some of my other colonies using it.

I have deliberately not given more space to them in the hope they will make swarm cells that i can use to requeen other hives.

Open the hive today and one single swarm cell in there. Im sure it is swarm not supercedure because the cell is at the bottom of the frame, the hive is jam packed, and she is doing an amazing job theyd be mad to replace her now.

I have had a swarm from a hive which is pretty aggressive, and i wanted to try to requeen them using this queen cell.

Does anyone have any relevent experience or insight into this that could guide me?

Thank you

 

[Wilco]

Hmm... Single one sounds more supercedure than swarm. First off I'd nuc the good queen just to be safe. If it's supercedure it's probably going to be a fairly decent queen.

That will cause the workers to make emergency cells alongside any swarm cells. Pick the best, you've got a few options:

Make bad hive Q-, add frame from good hive, mark which one it is, break down any QCs made on other frames in bad hive. Leave only one sealed QC. Wait and hope.

OR

My trick of making press in cages on every sealed QC in the good hive once queen is nuc-ed. This gives you multiple queens, they can't swarm and the bees do all the work. You can make the nasty hive Q- once the queens have emerged and run in a virgin immediately. You can potentially make up mating nucs from the nasty hive (realistically, all you need is a small carboard box with a hole in it, as long as you can keep it dry) and get several of the queens mated then pick the best.

 

[Finman]

If you have not clipped the queen, a swarm may escape whenever. Very risky business to that what you are doing. You msy loose your best hive.

If you have other hives, and they are going to swarm, you may take larvae from your best hive and you change the larva in swarm cells. = crafting.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Im sure it is swarm not supercedure because the cell is at the bottom of the frame,

means nothing - listening to people who just depend on the position to forecast their intentions can be very misleading and lead to tears
You would have been better off making increase by using Demarree
or even just doing walkaway splits

 

[Frizzaldo]

Hmm... Single one sounds more supercedure than swarm. First off I'd nuc the good queen just to be safe. If it's supercedure it's probably going to be a fairly decent queen.

That will cause the workers to make emergency cells alongside any swarm cells. Pick the best, you've got a few options:

Make bad hive Q-, add frame from good hive, mark which one it is, break down any QCs made on other frames in bad hive. Leave only one sealed QC. Wait and hope.

OR

My trick of making press in cages on every sealed QC in the good hive once queen is nuc-ed. This gives you multiple queens, they can't swarm and the bees do all the work. You can make the nasty hive Q- once the queens have emerged and run in a virgin immediately. You can potentially make up mating nucs from the nasty hive (realistically, all you need is a small carboard box with a hole in it, as long as you can keep it dry) and get several of the queens mated then pick the best.


View attachment 31848

Hi Wilco, I tried this, it worked very well. The one issue I had was some of the cages fell off (possibly from wright of bees on them) so had to reattach them after a few days. How do you attached yours? Simply press in or do you leave longer tabs/teeth on the cages to press in?

 

[Wilco]

Hi Wilco, I tried this, it worked very well. The one issue I had was some of the cages fell off (possibly from wright of bees on them) so had to reattach them after a few days. How do you attached yours? Simply press in or do you leave longer tabs/teeth on the cages to press in?

I press in but it can be awkward. If I can't press them in to my satisfaction I sometimes give up on that cell and remove it. I'm going to have a bit of a tinker over winter (sooner if I get the time) and see if I can improve the design. Teeth seem like the best way forward. The caveat is that some colonies will chew a hole through from the other side. I had one do that this year and seems to be colony specific.

 

[Frizzaldo]

yes I had a few workers get into some of the cages too.
I found the seem to knock down the cells around the cage which made them a bit less secure.

I put the cages on as soon as the queen cells were capped and then worried if that was too early (temprature) but the cages that had viable queens were easy to tell as they were covered with bees keeping them warm.