Supersedure Queen Cell

[Millet]

I was inspecting yesterday and all is well.. egg's / capped worker brood and the odd patch of drone brood.. there's plenty of stores building up with space still available for the queen to lay.. it all look's even among the 10 frame's with only one frame empty..
The super above is also been drawn out with 2 frames starting to fill with honey as the weather has been kind for a while now and the bee's have been none stop during the day.. however I found a big Queen Cell half way up a frame in the brood box.. I could not see a egg so hopefully it's just them messing about again.. if supersedure does occur will it not be too late in the year.. the swallow's left yesterday so that usually mean's the weather will change soon enough..
Thank's
Steve.

 

[itma]

... however I found a big Queen Cell half way up a frame in the brood box.. I could not see a egg so hopefully it's just them messing about again...

Its important that you come to distinguish between a "Play Cup" (dry and empty, a normal part of the scenery inside a hive) and a real "Queen Cell" where they have set about creating a new Q - ie it has a larva and Royal Jelly within (beekeepers will speak of it being "wet").
You can pretty much ignore the former, but the latter definitely needs to be taken seriously.

 

[Millet]

Thank you very much for that.. I cut it in half with the hive tool so I could see inside and it was dry with no sign of royal jelly.. so hopefully it's nothing as the thistle and bramble are blooming brilliant here and the last thing I want is something going wrong..

 

[BeeJayBee]

Have you been able to read this excellent booklet by Wally Shaw?
"There are Swarm Cells in my Hive"
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/There-Are-Queen-Cells-In-My-Hive-WBKA-WAG.pdf

 

[Millet]

Have you been able to read this excellent booklet by Wally Shaw?
"There are Swarm Cells in my Hive"
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/There-Are-Queen-Cells-In-My-Hive-WBKA-WAG.pdf

Thank you Jay i have that link in my favorite's and from the information i gained from it led me too believe it was a Supersedure Queen cell but then again the last time i read through it was about 2mth ago and this old grey matter seem's to have a leak somewhere.. lol..