Supercedure or swarmed?

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garethbryson

House Bee
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
Messages
166
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Location
Ballyronan (Northern Ireland)
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2
I got a nuc 3 weeks ago and all seemed to be going well. I have never seen the quen but seen lots of evicence that she was there, Lots of eggs etc. Due to weather and other reasons i didnt get to do an inspection for 9 days. When i opened the box the bee's were crazy, they were usually very docile.

There looked to be the same amount of bees in the box. There was 2 queen cells drawn from the face of one of the frames, one sealed with a larva and royal jelly in. the other was unsealed with larva and royal jelly. There was a proper sealed queen cell drawn on the bottom of a frame. there was no eggs and the only larva i did see was in drone cells that were nearly sealed.

I'm thinking that i've either killed the queen by mistake or they have swarmed although i dont think they have.(number of bee's look the same)

I have left the proper queen cell and will wait and see.

All advice welcome.
 
I got a nuc 3 weeks ago and all seemed to be going well. I have never seen the quen but seen lots of evicence that she was there, Lots of eggs etc. Due to weather and other reasons i didnt get to do an inspection for 9 days. When i opened the box the bee's were crazy, they were usually very docile.

There looked to be the same amount of bees in the box. There was 2 queen cells drawn from the face of one of the frames, one sealed with a larva and royal jelly in. the other was unsealed with larva and royal jelly. There was a proper sealed queen cell drawn on the bottom of a frame. there was no eggs and the only larva i did see was in drone cells that were nearly sealed.

I'm thinking that i've either killed the queen by mistake or they have swarmed although i dont think they have.(number of bee's look the same)

I have left the proper queen cell and will wait and see.

All advice welcome.


How much did you feed?, could be over feeding cuasing honey block...they have too much food and no where to put it


so lotd of food, no space=swarm
 
unusual to get a nuc with an unmarked queen, not everyone clips but it sounds definitely q/less, one q/cell left leave it alone for at least two weeks
 
Kill the queen and you typically get lots of queen cells.

I would guess that your bees have swarmed, and it was possibly a supersedure swarm.
 
I only gave them one feed when i got them and there was lots of room for them to use. i might actually give thema feed as there wasn't alot of stores in there yesterday evening.
 
one sealed with a larva and royal jelly in

How do you know that?

Nine days and sealed. Likely she is gone - one way or another. Were these cells from the face of the comb or from queen cups?
Nuc of just three weeks laying drones - a little surprising.

If the queen was the mother of all the bees, I would not expect her to be superceded unless for a very good reason. If not the mother of the hive bees, there is a greater possibility the bees will supercede her at an early date.

RAB
 
one sealed with a larva and royal jelly in[/B

How do you know that?

Nine days and sealed. Likely she is gone - one way or another. Were these cells from the face of the comb or from queen cups?
Nuc of just three weeks laying drones - a little surprising.

If the queen was the mother of all the bees, I would not expect her to be superceded unless for a very good reason. If not the mother of the hive bees, there is a greater possibility the bees will supercede her at an early date.

RAB


i know because i could see it when i removed it to leave the best looking sealed cell on the bottom of a frame. the other 2 (one sealed and one not sealed, both woth royal jelly and a larva) were built on the face of a frame of brood.
 
i know because i could see it when i removed it to leave the best looking sealed cell on the bottom of a frame. the other 2 (one sealed and one not sealed, both woth royal jelly and a larva) were built on the face of a frame of brood.

The Drone brood could be from a badly mated laying queen so the workers want rid of her
 

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