Virgin Qs ready to emerge

[Blacky50]

Checked my strongest colony today & found half a dozen sealed Q cells. The bees were keeping the queens in. When I cut one out and put it to one side a virgin emerged.
Hopefully an artificial swarm will help.

 

[beeno]

Hi Blacky,
I take it that you have completed an AS today. Hope you put a QX under the AS as the queen is slimmed down to go. You can take it off when she is laying again. Also, I would only leave one QC/virgin in a strong parent hive as it may swarm otherwise.
You were very lucky today especially since it was a very nice day!

 

[REDWOOD]

Pointless doing an as the queen and bees have long gone, release all virgins to stop further casts


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[foghornleghorn]

Pointless doing an as the queen and bees have long gone, release all virgins to stop further casts


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They might not have swarmed yet.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pointless doing an as the queen and bees have long gone, release all virgins to stop further casts


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Yep

 

[Eyeman]

Pointless doing an as the queen and bees have long gone, release all virgins to stop further casts

If the old queen was clipped she may still be in the hive in which case they haven't swarmed yet. The first swarm will be headed by one of those virgins,
If the queen isn't clipped then it is likely they swarmed 7-8 days ago (or longer if the virgins were being kept prisoner in the queen cells) when the first queen cell was capped. The only brood visible should be sealed and some mature larvae. In this case I would definitely release all the virgins to prevent a cast. Last time I did this a couple of virgins flew off suggesting they had been kept prisoner in the queen cell by the workers for some time.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Checked my strongest colony today & found half a dozen sealed Q cells. The bees were keeping the queens in. When I cut one out and put it to one side a virgin emerged.
Hopefully an artificial swarm will help.

bit late for that - queen long gone by the sounds of it

 

[mjt68]

Checked my strongest colony today & found half a dozen sealed Q cells. The bees were keeping the queens in. When I cut one out and put it to one side a virgin emerged.
Hopefully an artificial swarm will help.

I hope you reduced the numbers too, looks like great swarming weather this week!

 

[enrico]

It is not always true that because there are sealed queen cells that the queen has already flown......
E

 

[mjt68]

It is not always true that because there are sealed queen cells that the queen has already flown......
E

OP - did you find the queen for your AS?

 

[Matt77]

It is not always true that because there are sealed queen cells that the queen has already flown......
E

I had exactly that yesterday. Capped queen cells in two colonies & both queens still in residence.

 

[Eyeman]

Could have been:
1: bad weather delayed the swarm
2. If only 2 cells was this a supercedure.
3. What did the Q look like: still plump and strolling around laying as usual in a relaxed fashion or slimmed down and behaving nervously?

 

[Matt77]

Could have been:
1: bad weather delayed the swarm
2. If only 2 cells was this a supercedure.
3. What did the Q look like: still plump and strolling around laying as usual in a relaxed fashion or slimmed down and behaving nervously?

If that's for me,
1: Been cold for the last week here, frosts at night, hail, snow & rain during the day
2: 5-6 queen cells in each colony.
3: I'm not experienced enough to know if q's were slimmed down really but I would say they were fairly slim. Although I found them easily & they didn't appear to behave any more nervously than normal.

Performed AS on both colonies, apologies for hijacking some one eles's post

 

[Poly Hive]

Sealed cells and Q in residence is not uncommon in fact I have seen it more than once with the cells pared ready for emergence and the Q still there.

Good luck

PH

 

[Blacky50]

Thanks for your suggestions.

This morning I found the swarm in a tree nearby and have now collected it (using one of Steve's bee vacs). Qx under brood chamber with hive placed nearby to collect stragglers & will move to another apiary tomorrow.

Now I know this I can sort out my AS etc.

Obviously the colony thought the weather good enough and enough forage available to swarm. Perhaps a case of urban vs rural locations.

 

[oliver90owner]

There is only one reason why the workers would be 'coralling' queens to their cells - they are going to swarm in casts.

Think about it. If they only wanted the one queen, those extras would have been despached by the new queen. Simple and obvious? There may be times when an old queen has not already left with the prime swarm. Clipped, or otherwise unable to fly. Eight days with capped queen cells is not the norm. Make no mistake about that. If the weather was so good that they have got to the swarming season already, it is unlikely that swarming has not taken place already.

Go for the simple reasons. Bees are not that complicated.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hopefully an artificial swarm will help.

I'm getting confused here. Did you find the original queen to AS?
I ask because if those Virgin queens were being guarded the QCs must have been capped for 8 days.