supersedure cells after raising a queen

[Nige.Coll]

I'm confused .
I split 2 hives and they have raised new queens that are laying well. 7 frames of bias in one and 6 in the other .
Both hives have now made supersedure cells . Only one in each hive and from eggs layed by their new queen.
The cells are sealed and the queen is still in there laying.

The only thing I can think of that may have caused a problem is that when the queens were due to hatch the farmer sprayed the fields.
He only used a mild insecticide and I have not seen any losses due to it.

Any ideas as to what they are doing ?

I left the cells alone incase they know something I don't.

 

[oliver90owner]

Mild insecticide? Please elaborate. Never heard ov that!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Can't imagine these cells could have originated from anything but the queen's eggs. Please explain the other possibilities.

 

[REDWOOD]

insecticides do what it says on the tin, Kills insects

 

[oliver90owner]

I have not seen any losses due to it.

Please explain why these would necessarily be evident. When sprayed? What 'mild insecticide'? I am baffled!

 

[Nige.Coll]

lol
he used 6 ltrs of insecticide on 220 acres so it wasn't very concentrated .
the insecticide he used was defra approved and had been tested and shown to do little damage to honey bees from the info sheet he gave me.

what i meant by the egg comment was it wasn't any i had put in there.

as for the losses i didn't see any reduction in bees in the hives or any dead bees near the entrance. how else do you gauge losses ?


sorry for any confusion .

 

[beeno]

Hi Nige,
Bearing in mind the swarmy season experienced by many beeks this year, I would personally treat these as swarm cells. If you can afford to lose them leave alone. Otherwise, in the first instance, I would get rid of the queen cells and see if they build more.

 

[Finman]

.
I had last summer a case where the queen dropped out of laying. It superceded, but some of those queen cells were capped at the age of 2-3 days.
Then a new queen started to lay, but laying was not good too. Lots of pupae without capping.
Worker cells had some odd features.

Only thing what I know is that the farmer treated corn field with herbiside, and only 3 m from the hive. It was my fault that hive was there.

I have not seen ever that kind of proplems in hives.

I suppose that bees have gathered drinking water from sprayed leaves.

 

[Nige.Coll]

.
I had last summer a case where the queen dropped out of laying. It superceded, but some of those queen cells were capped at the age of 2-3 days.
Then a new queen started to lay, but laying was not good too. Lots of pupae without capping.
Worker cells had some odd features.

Only thing what I know is that the farmer treated corn field with herbiside, and only 3 m from the hive. It was my fault that hive was there.

I have not seen ever that kind of proplems in hives.

I suppose that bees have gathered drinking water from sprayed leaves.

Same thing herbicide and pesticide mix sprayed on the OSR .
Queen seems to be laying very well though.

 

[Tomo]

It may just be the bee's way of saying, "mmmm not sure about the present Q. Let's do this just to be on the safe side"........ A bee version of belt and braces perhaps?
I did an As recently. Newly laying Q hive did the same, one QC in middle of a frame. I took it off thinking "don't be silly". They haven't replaced it yet! (so maybe, just maybe I did the right thing?)