supercedure cell to early

[newportbuzz]

hi all. just looking for a bit of advise on a hive that is going for an early supercedure

She is on double brood and had some fondant over them in and inverted ashford feeder as belt and braces from febuary.

Between one thing and another it got strong and they drew some comb in the feeder and the queen went up and layed up there for a day or two.
in this time the brood nest which is in the bottom brood box mainly has drawn a supercedure cell which hatched at a guess 4-7 days ago.

so i have a hive with two queens in it. one mated but last autum supercedure(unmarked unclipped) and now this virgin aswell. however there are no drones flying yet here. i have been through about 50 hives here and while some are large there is no more than the odd drone cell about. at most 50-100 walking on the combs and that would be on mabey 5 hives out of that lot.

So how would you deal with this virgin who i doubt will be able to mate?

please keep in mind this is west ireland. no rape, dandilion is only out about a week and first inspections are still being done on some hives.

 

[Cazza]

Do you think the cell was made because the original queen was too far away from the brood when she was in the feeder?

As she is still laying and your virgin has no hope of mating, I would take it out and cull it. Then if the colony still wish to supercede the original queen they can make another QC. (Provided old queen is still in lay.)
Cazza

 

[newportbuzz]

should have mentioned the supercedure cells is hatched/emerged. so she is out and about.

ya i reckon they got seperated from her and drew it while she was in the feeder.

 

[Moggs]

Have you seen queen(s)/ eggs? Are you sure it has emerged? Have bees torn it down maybe? I would look for eggs (but be careful as you could have a q on a mating flight - you are still uncertain as to the q+ status) then go from there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[newportbuzz]

i have eggs. i have seen one queen which i marked but didnt clip as not sure weather it is the virgin or not altho she was a good size.

cell could have been torn down but the damage was to the top of the cell and all other teardowns i have seen are to the side.

i have about 10 or so frames of brood and about another half a frame worth in the feeder. with about 3-4 frames of that being eggs and larvae.

cell is almost bullseye centre on one frame. no other cells about not even cups.

 

[Arfermo]

should have mentioned the supercedure cells is hatched/emerged. so she is out and about.

ya i reckon they got seperated from her and drew it while she was in the feeder.

This is an object lesson for those who might also leave a QE off under a Miller/Ashforth feeder.

 

[Moggs]

You have eggs. Don't risk rendering them Q- they may have already sorted things out for themselves.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[newportbuzz]

This is an object lesson for those who might also leave a QE off under a Miller/Ashforth feeder.

hive tool will sort that very quickly. besides they will rob any honey back down from the feeder when its inverted back to its correct way.


on a side note there wont be qe in the hive till after june when i am contracting down the brood nest on the last few tardy hives. might even be later than that if i go for heather aswell this year

 

[newportbuzz]

You have eggs. Don't risk rendering them Q- they may have already sorted things out for themselves.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

will the virgin when stale not see to the end of my good queen?

ive lost a good few hives to drone laying supercedure queens that were to late. why should it behave any diferent if to early?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Bees generally know what they are doing.
If you're worried about a duff queen taking over, then you could split the colony and hope the virgin will mate or split the queens with an excluder - one brood box each - and then remove the queen that's not laying.

 

[leonotron]

on a side note there wont be qe in the hive till after june when i am contracting down the brood nest on the last few tardy hives. might even be later than that if i go for heather aswell this year

Off topic a bit but do you move yours to heather? Do you notice much of a difference? I live in Dublin but have some land with about 20 acres of bog near Ballyhaunis and was thinking of moving a hive down there for the heather.

 

[newportbuzz]

Off topic a bit but do you move yours to heather? Do you notice much of a difference? I live in Dublin but have some land with about 20 acres of bog near Ballyhaunis and was thinking of moving a hive down there for the heather.

i have some sites that get heather i moved a good few to the heather for 2 years running and didnt find it very good altho they seem to overwinter brilliantly on the late pollen.
bear in mind i have only got 5 years under my belt and i dont aim for heather.

 

[Moggs]

will the virgin when stale not see to the end of my good queen?



ive lost a good few hives to drone laying supercedure queens that were to late. why should it behave any diferent if to early?

Who knows? It seems as if you have decided that culling the VQ, if she's in there, is your best option. But you need to be certain of the conditions. The bees have got her going for their own purposes. You could let them get on with it, especially if you can resort to emergency measures if it goes badly wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[newportbuzz]

Who knows? It seems as if you have decided that culling the VQ, if she's in there, is your best option. But you need to be certain of the conditions. The bees have got her going for their own purposes. You could let them get on with it, especially if you can resort to emergency measures if it goes badly wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

emergency repairs are no bother either by dealing with whats left of just uniting it to something.
id have to say i am tending to think thew virgin is the problem alright. altho finding her will be a serious job altogether. hence im asking what others would do. see if anything seems viable which avoids me having to search for a virgin which may not be there.

ahh if it was easy it wouldnt be fun!