Forester Doug
New Bee
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2019
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Birmingham
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 1
My old queen has swarmed, and my hive is currently has no laying queen, and no eggs, some capped brood and drones yet to emerge. I had 7 sealed queen cells which I have thinned to two.
I kept the queen cells to try and establish what stage the queens were at. Whilst inspecting one I realised one had what appears to be a fully formed and moving queen, perhaps a little small (because she hasn't mated??), but a queen none the less. She hadn't 'emerged' herself but was flexing wings and once the cell was broken open she backed out of it on her own accord.
My question is has this ever happened to anyone else before? Did I do the right thing by putting her back in the hive? Should I have removed the remaining 2 queen cells? Is she likely to be able to take over the hive?
Any advice welcome.
I kept the queen cells to try and establish what stage the queens were at. Whilst inspecting one I realised one had what appears to be a fully formed and moving queen, perhaps a little small (because she hasn't mated??), but a queen none the less. She hadn't 'emerged' herself but was flexing wings and once the cell was broken open she backed out of it on her own accord.
My question is has this ever happened to anyone else before? Did I do the right thing by putting her back in the hive? Should I have removed the remaining 2 queen cells? Is she likely to be able to take over the hive?
Any advice welcome.