Hello all,
I'm not exactly sure, but about 90 percent sure that there was a queen cup hanging from the bottom of one of my frames in my upper deep.
Honestly, this hive has been pretty lazy, and hasn't snapped to, so I'm concerned I might lose it. Egg production doesn't seem as consistant as my other hive.
No big deal, I'd have no problem letting them supersede, HOWEVER, I'm curious about a little factoid I heard.
I've heard that if the cell is in the upper 1/3rd of the frame, its supersedure. If its in the bottom 1/3rd its a swarm cell.
Does this apply ONLY for the bottom deep or for the upper deep as well?
Thanks!
Some bees will build those wherever thay can. Nothing to worry about unless there's an egg or larva in there.
Agree with D Coates. I have seen several cups on the bottom of my frames....all of them empty. As long as they don't fill them, nothing to be concerned about. It's almost like they are being proactive in case something happens to her majesty. By the way, I liked the vidoes of the install you and your wife did.
Thanks Don! She was supposed to be the one to dump them into the box.
I told her weeks before and she said OK. Then game time comes and all of the sudden she "forgets".
You can kinda see the bewildered look on my face under the veil haha.
HaHa!! Amnesia....my wife suffers too! :-D
Back to the original question I believe is a good one.
Quote from: TheMasonicHive on June 18, 2010, 05:50:09 PM
I've heard that if the cell is in the upper 1/3rd of the frame, its supersedure. If its in the bottom 1/3rd its a swarm cell.
Does this apply ONLY for the bottom deep or for the upper deep as well?
I'm wondering the same thing. I have a similar situation in my upper deep but my cups have occupants! I didn't catch if yours were empty or not.
I started a separate thread in hopes of some enlightenment.
MeadFarm is she performing? My experience has been it does not matter whether it is the upper or lower. Typically, the swarm cells are hanging low and the supersedures are in the upper part of the frame. But the girls have a mind of their own and nothing is 100%. I recently pinched a poor performing queen and during the process there were queen cells in both locations; about 25 of them all together and in an upper.
From my observation of the hive in question I'm not seeing a lot of eggs nor a whole lot of capped brood either.
They also have the tendancy or resistance to draw any frames on the right side, away from the entrance.
They draw out 7 frames, but the last 3 will remain untouched. I've done some rotation last week.
Today I saw the cup and looked for an egg and found none. I figured if worst came to worst they are just using that burr comb section as a ladder, which I have no problem with.
I found 2 queen cups inbetween my 2 deeps, one was damaged by separating the deeps. So I go to scrape it off with my hive tool and a queen scurries out of the queen cell and down into the frames. This was 3 weeks ago and the hive has continued to expand and is currently drawing out a deep super. So I assume she was either killed or she superceded the package queen, but there seems to have been no impact on the hive. I'm kinda new at this, 3rd year, and still observing, reading, and learning.
Quote from: bens on June 18, 2010, 10:41:50 PM
I'm kinda new at this, 3rd year, and still observing, reading, and learning.
That should never end. :)
Quote from: donm on June 18, 2010, 09:03:10 PM
MeadFarm is she performing?
No she's dead. The hive has been queenless for two weeks. I relieved that they finally made some queen cells. I hope it works!