Opening PUPA queen cells-- not larva :)

[TerraJoy]

I found three large cells near the bottom of a frame (not hanging off of it about an inch up from the bottom). Two had been opened, exposing larva. I have not spotted my queen or eggs for a week and a half... are they trying to supercede her? I had to re-queen about a month ago..... My questions are:

1) why would they open these cells?
2) are they queens or drone cells?

[AllenF]

Get a pic to the mods to post and we can tell then.

[Intheswamp]

From what I've read (dangerous newbie here!) the first queen to emerge out of several queen cells will chew through the wax of the other queen cells so she can sting (kill) the other queens that haven't emerged yet.

I'm not sure if this is what you have or not...

Ed

[sc-bee]

>I found three large cells near the bottom of a frame (not hanging off of it about an inch up from the bottom). Two had been opened, exposing larva.

Two had been open exposing larvae ---- hard to tell but sounds like you tore open some drone cells removing frames. You could have also torn open some queen cells but they are quite a bit larger than a drone cell and shaped like a p-nut.

Queen Cells:
http://www.google.com/search?q=honey+be+queen+cell+torn+open&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=675#um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=honey+bee+queen+cell+&oq=honey+bee+queen+cell+&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=undefined&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=18828l24008l0l10l10l0l0l0l2l255l1537l2.4.4l10&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=dbc87a761764214b&biw=1024&bih=675

Big patch of drone brood bottom left:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.honeybeesuite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Mixed-comb-with-markup.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.honeybeesuite.com/%3Fp%3D540&usg=__5I2DQtPGETN47LcaNv3nif6nJV0=&h=857&w=1022&sz=172&hl=en&start=28&zoom=1&tbnid=ba0coIprqhZQcM:&tbnh=163&tbnw=186&ei=UrkTTvObFIHfgQevv9j9BA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddrone%2Bhoney%2Bbee%2Bbrood%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D675%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=155&vpy=109&dur=213&hovh=206&hovw=245&tx=142&ty=161&page=3&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:28

Sorry for the long links --- I am sure there was a better way. I'm not that puter savy ;)

>From what I've read (dangerous newbie here!) the first queen to emerge out of several queen cells will chew through the wax of the other queen cells so she can sting (kill) the other queens that haven't emerged yet.

Yes they chew through --- not open and expose the larvae so to speak.

As said above without pics it a shot in the dark.

[iddee]

Were they larva, or pupa? If larva, they had not been closed. They were still feeding the larva, getting ready to cap it.

If the larva/pupa was horizontal, it was drone. If vertical, it was queen.

[Intheswamp]

sc-bee, thanks for posting those links...very interesting (and good) photos.  I'm hear to learn, thanks for the help!

If you want to post an image found elsewhere on the net do this...  Right click on the image and select "Copy Image Location".  Come back here to the message editor and position your cursor where you want the picture at and then click paste.  Now, highlight the image address that you just pasted into the message, go up to the first icon in the row above the smileys (hover your pointer over it and it should say "Insert Image")...click on that icon.  It should place (img) and (/img) tags on opposite ends of the image address (note, the image tags will use [ and ] characters instead of ( and )).  Click on "Preview" to be sure it worked right.

If you want to put a text link in your message highlight and copy the address in the address bar of the page you want to link to.  Come back here to the message editor and put your cursor where you want the link.  Click the globe-looking icon just to the right of the "insert image" icon.  A small window will open, prompting you to inter in a address...simply paste over what is showing there with the address that you just copied.   The last window will prompt you for a word or phrase to use for the html link.

Mixed Brood Comb



I sure hope I didn't bum all that up trying to explain it.  :-\
Ed

[sc-bee]

Thanks swamp- I'll give it a try  :-D

[TerraJoy]

Were they larva, or pupa? If larva, they had not been closed. They were still feeding the larva, getting ready to cap it.
   It was pupa. Early stages it seems, white with purple eyes. 


If the larva/pupa was horizontal, it was drone. If vertical, it was queen.

It was vertical. The two cells looked as if they were growing out of each other. Like two trees growing out of the same trunk.

Are they trying to swarm or just re-queen?? Again I haven't seen eggs or the queen for over a week and 1/2 now. Also the third cell is unopened.

[BeeMaster2]

If there was something wrong with the queens the bees would open them up and remove them.
Jim

[FRAMEshift]

Ok, so you found queen cells.  A new virgin queen can emerge from her cell as soon as 11 days after the bees decide they need a new queen.  You haven't seen your queen or any signs of a queen in at least that long.  So it is possible that your original queen died or swarmed and you now have a new virgin queen.  

She may have killed the other queens by tearing open the cells and stinging them, leaving the dead queen pupae behind.  In that case, the hole in the cells would be in the side.  

If the hole is a neat round hole in the bottom of the cell there are two possibilities.  Either the new queens haven't been capped yet, or they have emerged by themselves from the bottom of the cell.  

From everything you have said, it sounds like you have a new virgin queen.  She will soon be taking her mating flights.  In 2 to 3 weeks from now you should start seeing eggs from the new queen.  Or it could take a bit longer, so don't get worried.