Thank you bees for another sleepless night

[alynewbee]

Three in the morning and I'm lying awake worrying about my bees (again!) so thought I'd seek advice.

My question is should I worry about my bees swarming at this time of year?

At last week's inspection I did the final bit of a combine I had been doing and removed the extra brood box. I didn't fully inspect the main brood box, just had a brief peek to check stores.

Inspected yesterday and looked properly through the brood box and found a supercedure cell bang in the middle of a frame and to my untrained eye it looked sealed. There was brood in all stages (plenty of eggs) but I couldn't find the queen who is marked and usually pretty easy to spot - she is a 2011 queen and a corker of a layer. The supercedure cell looked a bit puny and it was on a frame with what looked like very little other brood on it. Had a really good look through the rest of the box and found no other QCs.

So, I decided to leave the supercedure cell alone and let the bees sort it out for themselves but having thought that was the right course of action yesterday, I am now worried about them swarming (bees are in my garden so I worry about upsetting neighbours).

The weather looks ok for today so I could go in and remove the supercedure cell (and as there are plenty of eggs, if they are definitely set on supercedure they can make another) or was I right just to let them sort it out themselves?

Any advice would be very much welcomed.

Aly

 

[Chris B]

Hi Aly,
I don't think there are any guarantees in beekeeping. However, I would say swarming is only a very very remote possibility. You need to let your bees have the best chance of a healthy laying queen to see them through the winter. Supersedure gives the bees an extra chance - if it fails they still have the old queen to fall back on. My advice is leave the queen cell alone.
All the best
Chris

 

[newportbuzz]

i had this happen about 3 weeks ago and heres what i have done.

i kept a good eye on the cell. i was luck to find it uncapped so i knew how old it was to within a day or two so. when the cell had hatched about 15 days i went into the hive and took the old queen out and put her in a apidea(all i had spare). i then went into the hive 4 days later looking for queen cells.
if you have cells then the virgin was lost or aborted. if not then you have an active virgin in the hive and my one started laying within a few days and i still had the backup queen incase it went wrong.

however the year is getting on for that kind of playing so i would advise caution. i was out with a more experianced beek 3 days ago and came on the same thing and he just closed it up and walked away.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

if it is supersedure - mother and daughter may live happily side by side until things are sorted out.
On the other hand if the cell is really puny it may come to nothing (saw one like this in a hive last week - the existing queen was a newly mated virgin and laying strongly, but had taken her time in going to see the lads so we removed the cell)

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

As a relatively new (third year) beekeeper myself, I can understand the insomnia. But I have tended this year to become a little more robust. There is no way I am going to disturb my bees at 3 or 4 or even 5 in the morning, so I do not let them keep me awake (plenty of other things - including the current Lady DD's snoring - do that).

I also take the view that at this time of year if they choose to swarm then they will just have to get on with it. They have several million more years experience than I of what is good for bees. So I will just trust them.

If they have produced a supercedure cell there is a reason - likely either because the existing Queen is showing signs of running out of steam, or because she is unfit. So why not just leave them to it?

 

[Erichalfbee]

The supercedure cell looked a bit puny

Aly

Not necessarily. Bees are quite good at hiding these cells. There may be quite a portion buried in the wax. I had a look at a supercedure cell in one of my colonies after the queen emerged and three quarters of it was hidden.

I'd close up and let them get on with it

 

[itma]

Three in the morning and I'm lying awake worrying about my bees (again!) so thought I'd seek advice.

My question is should I worry about my bees swarming at this time of year?

... I am now worried about them swarming (bees are in my garden so I worry about upsetting neighbours).

...

Do you have anything you could set up as a 'bait hive' ?
The idea being that, if they should decide to split, there's a fair chance that they wouldn't actually go anywhere you didn't want.
Maybe you could borrow a nuc box or whatever additional hardware you need to make some sort of hive from your spare bits.
I gather that a couple of frames of drawn comb are a powerful swarm lure.

Not thinking to encourage swarming, more to guard against neighbour-bothering, if they did decide to vote with their wings ...
And I would expect that recombination would be the expected course if they did swarm.

 

[For want of a better word]

... I am now worried about them swarming (bees are in my garden so I worry about upsetting neighbours).

Possibly a good reason to find an out apiary.................

I got so sick of my neighbours, moaning about bees, kids, cars, dog, cats, etc etc I moved house.... I never realised how much a sea view was worth..... and bees are flourishing inland!
If you neighbours are that obnoxious and anti bee... a very good reason to find an out apiary!

 

[BBG]

Aly

Understand the fretting.

We had a supersedure nearly a fortnight ago and damaged it.

Bees have now built another to the side of frame (I think in the hope we won't be clumsy again and this spot is safe)

We're leaving them to it for the winter apart from feeding and treating.

The nucleus that has built the supercedure was the one that we caught balling the Q - must upload the film on that.

 

[alynewbee]

Thank you all so much and you all seem to be in full agreement to leave them to it. I've got a bait hive set up but stupidly I've not put my drawn comb in it. Going out now to do just that!

Thank you and roll on bed time zzzzzzzzzz