Is this a Queen cup??

Dimmsdale · June 18, 2011, 11:23:25 PM

Greetings! New WV Beekeeper here. Found this on the bottom of one of my frames. Is this a Queen Cup? Thanks for any input!

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joebrown · June 18, 2011, 11:54:15 PM

The correct terminology would be Queen Cell. Cups typically refer to a piece of plastic that you graft young larva into or use to rear queens! :-D Hopefully you will get the pics up soon and I know you will get your answer!

iddee · June 19, 2011, 12:10:42 AM

A queen cup is what looks to be the beginning of a queen cell, and may be a queen cell one day. The bees build them quite often, as if to stay in practice. It doesn't become a queen cell until it contains an egg or larva. We will look when the pic is posted whether it is a cup or cell.

qa33010 · June 19, 2011, 01:45:33 AM

If it is occupied it's a cell if it is empty it is a cup. Mine build and tear down cups all the time.

joebrown · June 19, 2011, 04:14:23 AM

I guess you learn something everyday. I have never heard the term Queen Cup. They have always been Cells to me.

tandemrx · June 19, 2011, 06:47:37 AM

what has been so interesting with our observation hive is seeing how much attention queen cups get from the bees. They are constantly working on the cup with multiple bees crawling all over it all the time with one bee almost always with its head in the cell fixing/primping/looking. They never seem to leave it alone (until they decide to deconstruct it if they choose to do so).

I am always trying to look to see if there is an egg or larvae in the cell and it is nearly impossible because just as one bee is pulling her head out of the cell doing whatever it is she is doing, one of the other workers wedges her head in there. Can't even get a peek in there with all the activity.

buzzbee · June 19, 2011, 10:52:02 AM

Photos added to OP

iddee · June 19, 2011, 12:13:42 PM

Yes, that's a queen cup. These are queen cells.

Larry Bees · June 19, 2011, 01:27:23 PM

Quote from: Dimmsdale on June 18, 2011, 11:23:25 PM
Greetings! New WV Beekeeper here. Found this on the bottom of one of my frames. Is this a Queen Cup? Thanks for any input!

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I didn't think queen cups were closed at the bottom like the ones in these pictures. Larry

iddee · June 19, 2011, 02:22:56 PM

I don't think the ones in the pics are closed. It's just the angle of the shot.

Larry Bees · June 19, 2011, 05:33:15 PM

OK, that's probably it. They just look closed. Larry

Dimmsdale · June 21, 2011, 08:01:58 PM

Thanks for the input everybody! Still seeing eggs, larva and a good pattern of sealed brood. I widened their entrance reducer, added a super, and rotated some empty frames in. It's the only one in the hive so is that a good assumption that it probably not a sign of swarming? I've read that they normally prepare more than one when preparing to swarm. I've got a nuc on stand by that I might put out as a trap just in case...

Finski · June 23, 2011, 01:25:39 AM

.
Maarec edu paper:'
SWARMING BIOLOGY
Swarming normally occurs in strong populous colonies.
The first apparent preparation in swarming is
the laying of fertile eggs by the queen in the special
queen cups that are normally present.

(Maarec is a consortion of 6 beekeeping university)

https://agdev.anr.udel.edu/maarec/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Swarm_Prev_Control_PM.pdf

I call them "queen cell cups"

The British say that the right term is "playing cups". I wonder why.
.

Dimmsdale · June 23, 2011, 12:01:24 PM

Thanks Finski!