I'm new and confused. I have had my package for three weeks. All has been good so far. Last week I had two queen cups in the middle but nothing in them, so I wasn't concerned. This week I now have queen cell capped at the bottom of the a frame like they are going to swarm. The problem is that they are a new package that doesn't even have the deep filled with comb yet. They only have five and a half frames drawn with comb. The queens pattern is visually excellent, no missing spots. I am in Michigan and the weather has been rainy. Can anyone tell me what is going on and what if anything I should do? Thanks.
This happens often with packages. Package suppliers often dump bees from multiple hives then add a queen. Although she is a queen, she is not their queen. Sometimes they accept her and sometimes they don't. If they have plenty of room, it is probably not a swarm cell just a supersede cell.
Good luck,
Steve
So being early in the year shouldni just let them do their thing? They know better then me right?
Not necessarily. Like Steve says, they could be trying to supersede because they haven't fully accepted her yet.
It's always a bit tricky to decide what to do with queen cells. If I had a situation like that and the queen was laying well with a great pattern like that, I would probably elect to get rid of the queen cells and give them more time to settle in. If they are truly set on superseding, it sounds like they have more eggs to work with and they will try again. You can decide then whether you want to let them go with it.
Or, do you have resources to start a nuc with those queen cells? If you only have the one package with 5-1/2 drawn frames, then probably not. But if you have another hive to draw from, you have that option.
I would keep an eye on things but would likely allow them to supersede since they are in fact in charge. What type of bees are these?
...JP
Italians. So I should just remove them for now and see in a week or so what they do? We are supposed to start having a lot of better weather low around upper fifties to low sixties. Will this help?
I would not mess with the queen cells but that would be my choice.
...JP
Thanks that's what I think I'm am going to do. Being my first year I just want the hive to make it not worried about any honey.