What to do?

[kittietrixie]

Hi.

I inpsected my hives this evening and wonder if you could help with the two problems seen.

First, one hive had a queen cell last time I inspected about 12 days ago - when I inspected today, the queen cell is still there, the hive is full of bees and stores (no eggs). Do you think the queen cell will emerge or has it all gone terribly wrong?

Second problem - another hive had no eggs and no visible queen. However, it did have 7 fairly developed queen cells. I didn't destroy any of them as it was perplexing - no queen, no eggs but they're preparing to swarm? Or have I just got it all wrong and they're superseding?

Any light you can shed would be gratefully received!

 

[VEG]

they may have all ready swarmed

 

[kittietrixie]

So now just hope the queen cell emerges?

 

[VEG]

you need to give more info such as was the queen cell closed, and what do you call fairly developed q cells?

 

[REDWOOD]

No eggs and no queen I would say they have swarmed, did you notice what stage the youngest brood was as this is an indication on how long ago they swarmed

 

[REDWOOD]

Forgot to mention do not remove all queen cells leave the youngest biggest charged ONE there, and why ????

 

[kittietrixie]

Yes, the queen cell was closed. In the first hive, the QC was large.

In the second hive, there was a mixture of large and small QCs.

 

[kittietrixie]

There was no brood in either hive.

 

[REDWOOD]

So no brood means the 2 hives have swarmed
1st hive one capped queen cell leave until new queen hatches and mates
2nd hive you are heading for a cast swarm, go through your hive and make sure there is no queen, if no queen is found remove all QC except ONE charged open QC, mark the frame with the QC with a drawing pin and check in 7 days

A good bit of reading below
http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Queens will usually swarm when a queencell is sealed. After sealing there is 8 days before the queen emerges from the queencell.

Assume that if you see a sealed queencell, the queen has gone. Sometimes queens stop laying for a few days before swarming - as she is being thinned down for flying.

Queen
Egg 3 days
Larva/Open Queencell 5 days
Sealed Queencell 8 days

Worker
Egg 3 days
Larva 6 days
Sealed for 12 days

From the above you can estimate when the queen stopped laying/swarmed.



(HOWEVER I have seen colonies where the queen has not left despite having sealed queencells in the hive. I have a colony that swarmed this week where there was just one open queencell with the small larva swimming in royal jelly and a few days off sealing - not a whiff of swarming at the weekend).

 

[chycarne]

Had a similar situation recently ... no eggs no apparent queen large number of bees ... went ah well we have two queen cells split hive do an AS without the queen and see what happsns. 1 week later two sealed q cells one a bit batter oh and a queen... and eggs ... hmmm this was in the new hive, removed q cell... new queen no old queen back up to size and easily found, new hive nice q cell all surrounds cleared down... Queens get slimmed down to fly and are virtually completely well worker ish like... so we have origional queen, potential new queen and quite a few puzzled moments, unless of course the queen went on holiday for a week... any ideas where a queen on the run would go for a weeks break? we whent through the hive 3 times... then split... still happy wit hwhat we did and would do it again... but need a big magnifying glass thats the lesson learned

 

[kittietrixie]

Many thanks for your guidance and advice - really appreciated.