Your action when you see eggs in qcs

[the naked beekeeper]

Hi all,

What is your action when you see eggs in qcs?

I know technically it is not a definite call to swarm unless charged with royal jelly.

If one does nothing until the next week, then they could be gone, if say the egg was 2 days old.

I don't have the time to check their progress in a few days, nor do I want my whole life and spare time going to the bees to check for possible qc progress.

So, what do you do, assuming you check weekly, when you see eggs in cups?

 

[HollyBee]

Not having much experience. Personally if the egg was only a couple of days old and you check weekly I would leave it until the next inspection. Queens take 15days to mature so you should have a little grace but it depends if you want to risk it.

I am sure someone with more experience will be along shortly.

 

[REDWOOD]

Not the best option but you could cut them out and if they start making new ones It will be 7 days later and not usually sealed by then so you have time that week to prepare for an AS

 

[REDWOOD]

Not having much experience. Personally if the egg was only a couple of days old and you check weekly I would leave it until the next inspection. Queens take 15days to mature so you should have a little grace but it depends if you want to risk it.

I am sure someone with more experience will be along shortly.

I think tnb was concerned about loosing half his bees when they have swarmed, the Bees swarm on day 7 or 8

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you knock the QC's down they could then start a QC from a larvae thus giving you only 4 or 5 days to sealed cell and swarming.

 

[WI-USA-BEEK]

You have to make a choice, either take the risk of a swarm, or come back in a few days. I personally don't think they will swarm on you in seven days from egg. I usually still find the queen one week from an inspection from finding eggs in cups. I actually usually still find the queen a week later after finding wet cells. I have found it to be more myth that they will swarm instantly after cells are capped. I think they wait a couple days usually. I often find the queen among many, many capped cells which I know for a fact there have to be older ones ten and eleven days from egg being laid. If you see eggs, I really think you are going to be ok to inspect on the same day the following week.

One thing you can do is put a queen excluder under the bottom box so she cant leave with a swarm. I also think at only egg stage if you open the nest up with several frames of drawn comb and scrape cells they will snap out of it. I have done this several times. You could also move the colony to another location and put a weak colony in its place to weaken the colony in question and strengthin the weak one breaking any impulse to swarm.

 

[Poly Hive]

A play cup means nothing at all.

A play cup with an egg in it is something to watch but usually the bees move the egg.

A cup with jelly and grub is a statement of intent. Either swarming or supercedure.

If in doubt then AS.

PH

 

[Arfermo]

I often find the queen among many, many capped cells which I know for a fact there have to be older ones ten and eleven days from egg being laid. QUOTE]

One thing you can do is put a queen excluder under the bottom box so she cant leave with a swarm.

Or clip her wings so that the swarm has nowhere to go except back where they came from and so as not to annoy anybody?

 

[oliver90owner]

I have found it to be more myth that they will swarm instantly after cells are capped.

Much less than a myth, a general rule. If you wish to risk losing a swarm, that is the way to go, simple - just keep on waiting; they will go!

I was under the impression that the following poster did not have enough colonies to 'often' find the same as WI-USA-BEEK.

In the UK, most often they are gone when the first cell is capped. Period. This year has been unprecedented weather-wise and is the exceptional example. With bees, one cannot be entirely prescriptive about what and when they will do things.

Get real and act to avoid the possibility, nay - the probability, of losing your bees and a huge part of the potential honey crop.

 

[dclewis]

Clip your queens, that gives you a few more days and allows for weekly inspections and to be sure of their intent to swarm.

 

[nematode]

One of my hives had eggs in cups last week. I did an inspection four days later and the eggs were gone. I think I remember reading in Ted hopper's book that eggs in cups are not a clear indication of swarm intention and it's just the bees keeping us guessing.

 

[Travelator]

If I see QCs with eggs (and the colony is queenright), I knock them down, add extra space if possible, and come back a week later expecting to do an artificial swarm.

There may well be better strategies for people who are more organised or attentive.

 

[Mike a]

Just in case a novice bee keeper reads this thread is ask yourself are they swarm cells or are they supersedure cells.

Swarm cells
If in doubt take them out, if they continue to try to build more then A/S them the following week. Pointless trying to prevent them from swarming if they want to, sooner or later you will miss a QC.

Supersedure
Leave them alone unless you have a handy supply of queens to hand.

 

[margob99]

Nuc 'em! (sorry, it just had to be done )

 

[WI-USA-BEEK]

I keep Italians and maybe your bees swarm behavior is different than the common Italians we have in the states. I just went to a yard two days ago and found three preparing to swarm. Two had capped queen cells in them and I found the queen in both after several nice days that would not have prevented swarming. I have no idea where you get this idea they will swarm as soon as a cell is capped. Of course they will before long, there is only 8 days before the first will emerge.

Clipping queens will usually help keep them from swarming but sometimes the queen will fall into the grass and not make it back into the hive. At least for my anyway cause I keep my colonies on stands about 16 inches off the ground.

Once a colony gets to strong there is nothing you can do to prevent it from swarming. You have to weaken the colony or continually open the brood nest with drawn comb.

 

[Into the lions den]

There is no one rule to fit all circumstances.

However, removing queen cells once they are started, without some other radical intervention, is futile. You must take action (and the range of actions available could just about fill a book.)

The bees however do not read the books. New situations arise each year, and this year with the current exceptional weather, is giving us a few lessons. Swarms are leaving hives with only eggs in cups. It is happening (albeit sporadically and very infrequently)over all our unit, and while this weather continues this needs to be taken into consideration. Not just a feeling, have seen it happen a couple of days ago, caught the marked clipped queen as she emerged, and on checking the colony found only eggs, no larvae whatsoever, in the cells. Have found several with the queen gone, cell cups with eggs in them, and maybe a couple of tiny larvae, and the start of emergency cells (just first day stuff). Difficult times for the inexperienced, and even for us too.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I have been battling with this also, the hives are coming out much quicker than normal despite a good 'normal' inspection time. Difficult year from a timing perspective for me.