Would this Work as an Artificial Swarm?

[HM Honey]

Been lovely here today so did full inspections on all my hives. All looking strong but one in particular was bubbling with bees, 9 frames of eggs & bias both sides and two frames full of stores.

Its got a super on that was fresh foundation a week ago that they have started to draw.

During the inspection today i noticed two play cup type cells that were charged with royal jelly. I don't think they were proper queen cells as they didn't appear to be being drawn long, had no larva or eggs and looked more like play cups, but at best, its probably a sign that they are thinking about swarming, so I am going to AS them.

I don't want to increase my colonies and have no drawn super foundation at the moment so my idea was to AS the old queen in to three supers of fresh foundation with a QE under the "brood area". The hope is that they will draw the new super foundation quickly.

I will then re-unite and keep the old queen (she's a 2013) and have three supers of drawn foundation.

My questions for the more experienced beeks are:

1) Has anyone done this before?
2) Is it likely to work?
3) When Re-uniting, will it be an issue that the queen is in the top box?

Cheers guys

 

[MartinL]

I don't understand.
They seem to be building up well, starting to draw out the foundation in the super you've added.

Just because you have spotted a couple of play cups you are ready to Jeopardise their spring build-up with your experimentation.

Try being patient maintain frequent inspections now you know all is well and be ready to take action when you need to, but not just yet!

 

[HM Honey]

Sounds like good advice MartinL, thanks.

It wasn't a case of me wanting to experiment. I figured they needed AS due to the play cup being charged with Royal Jelly and was just wondering if this idea would work? Fortunately, I'm off work this week so can keep a good eye on them. I'll inspect them again in four days maybe and see where they are at.

 

[richardbees]

I don't think they were proper queen cells as they didn't appear to be being drawn long, had no larva or eggs and looked more like play cups, HM

Martini is right, just scrape them off!

(one way to make an emergency National broodbox is to put a 3" deep wood frame (eke) under a super with with frames/foundation)

 

[enrico]

Charged with royal jelly but no eggs!!!?!?!?
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, I thought that. How can you see?

 

[oliver90owner]

You cannot artificially swarm a colony that is not already in swarm mode and more specifically for those that don't understand, with charged queen cells.

How anyone thinks they can emulate the queen being slimmed down ready for flight, per eg, is beyond comprehension. Either that or they need to actually read up on how the super organism reproduces.

 

[Heather]

They don't put royal jelly in play cups and not mean business...Play cups are practice, these sound 'interesting' .

 

[HM Honey]

They don't put royal jelly in play cups and not mean business...Play cups are practice, these sound 'interesting' .

My thoughts exactly Heather....No smoke without fire so to speak

As MartinL says though, I may be jumping the gun a little so I'll check again on Friday and see where they are at.

It's possible there were eggs in the cells that I didn't see but I did scrape the cells off and spread the contents out and still couldn't see any egg so I don't think they were there.

RAB - doesn't the Demaree method of swarm control do exactly what you say cant be done? In any case, my assertion was that this hive IS in swarm mode, or at least preparing for it. Don't you think so?

 

[Cazza]

Another small problem is that when the queen lays in the super frames and the brood hatches, bees don't usually like to put honey in the cells where the brood has been so you often get an arch of unfilled cells in the supers.
This can be a supreme pain with OSR as they then fill out and cap the non laid in cells and leave the rest til last. This can be unripe when the OSR needs to be taken off. Not recommended!

Far better to do this properly and make up some brood frames.
Cazza
P.S I am in agreement with Heather.

 

[HM Honey]

Hmmm, didn't know that Cazza, thanks for the advice.