On 6/24 we inspected a hive and all looked very good. Two brood boxes and added a super. Laying pattern was good.
On 7/20 we inspected the same hive. Super was full and ready for capping. Second brood box was heavy with honey but it did have some frames with brood. One particular frame had two queen cells that appeared to be torn down....?
Bottom deep had capped brood and eggs along with various stages of larvae.
Second year queen.
My question is why the torn down queen cells. My bee math isn?t that good but I can?t see how I can have a new queen given the various stages of brood.
Any ideas?
It is a natural thing for a colony to prepare to swarm. Sometimes they change that decision. Also for insurance purposes the colony builds cups in preparation for supercedure. Cups are nothing to worry about. Perfectly natural.
If they were queen cells and not just queen cups then another possibility is that you have a supercedure in progress with a mother and daughter both in the hive laying. If that is the case, they will eventually get rid of the mother once the daughter gets established.
Quote from: Acebird on July 21, 2018, 08:07:17 AM
It is a natural thing for a colony to prepare to swarm. Sometimes they change that decision. Also for insurance purposes the colony builds cups in preparation for supercedure. Cups are nothing to worry about. Perfectly natural.
These were definitely queen cells. The ends were capped, and the sides were torn away. My first thought was that they changed their mind but wasn?t sure that could happen.
Thanks for the info.
A weak scent queen might cause the supersedure cell to be made. When facing a summer dearth they
might change their minds and decided to keep the old queen after all. Sometimes certain bees don't agree
with one another. Who knows why?