Joe_01
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2019
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Hampshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 5
Hi guys,
Seen a lot of these sort of posts so sorry for another one.
Over the last week or so my bee population has increased a huge amount so much so that they are on the OMF and by the entrance even at night. I opened them up today to see the amount of stores they have has increased a large amount which is great to see.
So here's the problem.
I found three queen cells. Now the week before I believe my bees threw off a small swarm as I found a clump of them on the leg of my hive which eventually disappeared (but could have been bearding or bees hanging out). I don't want them swarming at all; this is a first year colony and I want them to be strong through the winter. So I immediately destroyed all the queen cells. I didn't stop to think that the three cells were supersedure cells rather than the normal swarm cells.
You could say "well they are out of space" but they still haven't drawn out 4 of the frames at the back of the hive at all. You could also say "they wanted to replace the queen" but the queen I got at the moment is laying, not damaged and is really productive.
So what do I do now? Here are some ideas I had.
1) Give them 1:1 sugar syrup and hopefully they will draw out the comb
2) Give them 1:1 sugar syrup and a super so they draw out the comb and have more space
3) Leave them how they are. They will draw out the comb eventually and if they swarm, they swarm
4) Leave them how they they are but continue to remove all the queen cells if more appear
5) Leave one queen cell next time to hopefully supersede my current queen
Any advice on what to do would be great!
Joe
Seen a lot of these sort of posts so sorry for another one.
Over the last week or so my bee population has increased a huge amount so much so that they are on the OMF and by the entrance even at night. I opened them up today to see the amount of stores they have has increased a large amount which is great to see.
So here's the problem.
I found three queen cells. Now the week before I believe my bees threw off a small swarm as I found a clump of them on the leg of my hive which eventually disappeared (but could have been bearding or bees hanging out). I don't want them swarming at all; this is a first year colony and I want them to be strong through the winter. So I immediately destroyed all the queen cells. I didn't stop to think that the three cells were supersedure cells rather than the normal swarm cells.
You could say "well they are out of space" but they still haven't drawn out 4 of the frames at the back of the hive at all. You could also say "they wanted to replace the queen" but the queen I got at the moment is laying, not damaged and is really productive.
So what do I do now? Here are some ideas I had.
1) Give them 1:1 sugar syrup and hopefully they will draw out the comb
2) Give them 1:1 sugar syrup and a super so they draw out the comb and have more space
3) Leave them how they are. They will draw out the comb eventually and if they swarm, they swarm
4) Leave them how they they are but continue to remove all the queen cells if more appear
5) Leave one queen cell next time to hopefully supersede my current queen
Any advice on what to do would be great!
Joe