First a little history.
Installed 2 packages on May 1st. The first hive has been going like crazy since the beginning.
The second is the one with issues. They never have seemed to be as active as the first.
We did an inspection a week ago and I found the makings of several queen cells in the brood area.
Here are a couple pics.
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/rockingGbees/SF6SztnNPEI/AAAAAAAAAPg/TSI0vWbDgsI/s144/100_0203.jpg) (http://picasaweb.google.com/rockingGbees/JustPics/photo#5214766835656637506)
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/rockingGbees/SF6S1weHC_I/AAAAAAAAAPo/lCltuFZjCRM/s144/100_0204.jpg) (http://picasaweb.google.com/rockingGbees/JustPics/photo#5214766870783527922)
I have these queen cells on 4 -5 frames.
Now. Yesterday we did another inspection and it seem there are more queen cells. One was on the edge of a frame and was damaged while removing the frame. It had a developibg larva inside and had been capped. Also there are 3-4 more capped queen cells in the hive. There are egs and larva in all stasges of development.
Also was not able to locate the queen, but I have missed her before and found her on the next inspection.
The other hive has NO queen cells at all. This queen was located
So , what am I seeing and what do I need to do ?????
Thanks in advance for the help.
Mike
Did you see a queen or eggs? Do they have enough space? You could split each queen cell frame +1 into a nuc and rapidly build your hive numbers, or you can let them supercede the queen, if there is one. If the queen is weak, let the bees do what they know is best and raise another, who will lay well (hopefully).
Cutting queen cells is fruitless, so if you're not going to split, just let the bees follow the course they've chosen.