I hate to admit it, but I'm still having trouble discerning between swarm cells and supercedure cells. Here's my situation: Bought a new nuc and a package in early June. Something happened to the nuc and it went queenless. I combined them and the resulting colony seemed to be very happy for a few weeks. Then I went on vacation and didn't get to check them for about 2 weeks. When I finally opened them up yesterday, I saw several queen cells. Big ones, in various different locations - there were a few on the bottoms of some of the frames, and some on the sides of the frames.
Before I left for vacation, I put a 3rd deep on top, just in case they started to run out of room while I was gone. They don't seem to be using this 3rd deep yet. There's a pretty decent amount of brood in the bottom boxes, but the pattern didn't look quite right to me. Pretty spotty. I'm thinking they are probably superceding, but I'm not sure.
I'm wondering what (if anything) I should do? Some of the queen cells had hatched already. Should I just assume they are superceding and let nature take its course? Or grab a few frames with unhatched queens and make a split? We're currently in a dearth here in central MA. I think not as dearthy as last year, but dearthy nonetheless. Thanks for the advice!
>I hate to admit it, but I'm still having trouble discerning between swarm cells and supercedure cells.
There is really no difference. They look like queen cells. There is a TENDENCY for a swarm cell to be on the bottom, but that's not a rule. It's more the situation that gives it away. A crowded hive, a booming hive a lot of cells, and I would assume swarm cells. A dwinding hive with lots of room and a few cells and I would assume a supersedure.
> Here's my situation: Bought a new nuc and a package in early June. Something happened to the nuc and it went queenless. I combined them and the resulting colony seemed to be very happy for a few weeks. Then I went on vacation and didn't get to check them for about 2 weeks. When I finally opened them up yesterday, I saw several queen cells. Big ones, in various different locations - there were a few on the bottoms of some of the frames, and some on the sides of the frames.
How many? How crowded is the hive?
>Before I left for vacation, I put a 3rd deep on top, just in case they started to run out of room while I was gone.
But how crowded in the brood nest? Is it backfilled with nectar?
> They don't seem to be using this 3rd deep yet. There's a pretty decent amount of brood in the bottom boxes, but the pattern didn't look quite right to me. Pretty spotty. I'm thinking they are probably superceding, but I'm not sure.
Spotty as in backfilled with nectar? Or spotty as in empty cells with nothing in them at all?
>I'm wondering what (if anything) I should do? Some of the queen cells had hatched already. Should I just assume they are superceding and let nature take its course?
If they were swarm cells they swarmed eight days before those queens emerged. So the only rational thing to do is to let "nature take it's course". You should see eggs in a about two weeks.
> Or grab a few frames with unhatched queens and make a split?
If you want queens. But if some already emerged, they will have killed those by now...
> We're currently in a dearth here in central MA. I think not as dearthy as last year, but dearthy nonetheless. Thanks for the advice!
A very doubtful time for a swarm and not the best time for a split.
Thank you Michael for the information. I'd say the brood nest is busy, but not extremely so. Not backfilled with nectar. The cells without eggs didn't have nectar either. They were just empty. I'm picturing the queen in there like a car running out of gas: egg egg egg nothing egg egg nothing egg nothing egg egg nothing. Maybe that's why they are superceding her.
I'll sit tight. Come to think of it, I've had supercedures before in the July timeframe, so that's probably what's going on now. Thanks again for the info!