What to do

[DaveS]

I have a hive that I AS 3 weeks ago and the one with the original queen has a number (I counted 7) of queen cells in it - some of them capped. The queen was present and seems to be laying well.

Do I do another AS? I'm confused by the capped cells but the is queen present so could it be supercedure? The cells are all at the bottom of the frames.

What would you do?

Thanks

 

[Erichalfbee]

I would take them down and look in again in 3/4 days.
Sometimes the urge remains and removing them does the trick.
They are NOT supersedure cells

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

how much brood is in the hive? how exactly did you conduct the A/S ?

 

[DaveS]

The AS consisted of 2 frames of brood plus queen in existing position with no Q cells. 2 frames with close to capping QC to nucleus (eggs now present) and remaining frames with 1 qc on snellgrove above 2 supers (no eggs or queen visible).

I wonder if I should mix around my 2 vertical boxes so that only queen plus frame in bottom and brood plus 1 qc in top so that if q- in upper box there is a remedy. Bottom box has 6 frames of bias (1 capped) - I'm on 14x12.

What do you think?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Should have put one frame of brood or none with the queen for a start IMHO, but looks like she was still building up like a good un and six frames on a 14x12 with a colony still not out of swarming fever speaks for itself I think. Where were you bleeding bees to/from with your Snelgrove board?

 

[DaveS]

Probably right.

Didn't do any bleeding in the end - I had intended to but never got around to it so the board is really just being used as a floor but with mesh.

Bottom box also seems to be doing ok foraging having nearly filed (uncapped) 2 supers over the last few weeks.