Hey folk's, Not long till I put on my 2nd brood box. Did the 3 week check on my 2 hives today on HSC and found 8 of the 10 frames in each with some kind of work in them (i.e. capped honey/pollen) and 5 out of 10 frames of capped brood a little spotty on the outer frames but a good tight pattern on the more center frames. The hives are active and appear healthy. Found one of the queens and She has a large pure black abdomen. I had asked for the queens to be marked and clipped but when I received them they were neither.In one of the boxes I found a supersedure cell and a swarm cell and removed them. The bees and queens appeared to take to the HSC with no problem and I'm looking forward to a large build up in short order. Brad
Continue to remove queen cells and you will end up queenless and can buy more bees next spring. Bees don't make queen cells when they don't need them.
Other than that, I'm glad to hear they're doing fine. I hope it isn't already too late.
Quote from: iddee on June 21, 2009, 11:10:59 PM
Continue to remove queen cells and you will end up queenless and can buy more bees next spring. Bees don't make queen cells when they don't need them.
Other than that, I'm glad to hear they're doing fine. I hope it isn't already too late.
I couldn't agree more. NEVER remove queen cells unless you have another queen you are planning to put in the hive. It's a very bad idea.
Thanks for the advice.I'm a first time beek and also hope I didn't screw up. The queen cells were found in the hive where I seen the queen so at least I know I have an active queen in both hives as of today. Ther was only one supercedure cell and one swarm cell I would of thought there would of been more. Thank's, Brad
Quote from: RangerBrad on June 22, 2009, 12:03:13 AM
Thanks for the advice.I'm a first time beek and also hope I didn't screw up. The queen cells were found in the hive where I seen the queen so at least I know I have an active queen in both hives as of today. Ther was only one supercedure cell and one swarm cell I would of thought there would of been more. Thank's, Brad
If you are calling them a supercedure cell and a swarm cell due to their location on the frames be advised that what you are seeing is 2 supercedure cells, call is backup insurance.
Bees intent on supercedure will often do what bees do for emergency queen replacement (died or killed) and build the cells where they find the best eggs available as replacements.
If you found 2 supercedure cells and both were capped the demise of the current queen you saw might have only been moments away and your inspection interrupted the process.
Bees, especially during supercedure, will often kill the reigning queen as soon as the replacement candidates cells have been capped.
Destroying queen cells is foolish because even in the case of true swarm cells. supercedure, or emergency queen cells, the demise of the queen or swarming can happen anytime between the capping of the queen cell and when it hatches, a 10 day period. If you inspect the hive during that 10 day period and remove queen cells you just rendered the hive queenless.
Also be aware that bees bent on swarming will do so and destroying the queen cells will, more than likely, activate the early swarm after the queen cell is capped instead of waiting until hatch.