Does this look normal? .... and are those the beginnings of queen cells?

joker1656 · July 04, 2009, 06:56:32 PM

I went through most of my hives today. They all, save a couple of hives, look pretty good to me. There are two that I need to combine with a strong hive, due to queenlessness. At least they appear to be. Other than that they all look healthy.

Primarily, two questions arose as I looked through them. One of my hives, started as a package April 9th, seems quite strong. Lots of bees, but not as much brood as I expected. They have drawn two boxes out, except maybe one side of the last frame in each box.

They have been that way for quite some time. I put a comb honey super on,without an excluder, about three weeks ago. They have not touched that box. There are bees in it, but nothing has been done.

In the second brood box, back to the "not as much brood as I expected", they have several frames of HONEY without one cell of brood! It is pretty as a picture, but why isn't the queen laying??? I took some photos with my cell phone. (battery dead in real cam) In the bottom box I found several frames with good laying patterns. At least I think it is a good pattern. I also took pics of this.

There were some eggs and brood in the top brood box, but not much. Mostly honey in that one. Is this normal, or .....???

this is the pattern
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5221/photo070409001.jpg

this is the honey
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7364/photo070409003.jpg

This is a frame from a different hive, but the pattern is spotty. I also had this frame (2nd pic in this group), among other good ones, from this hive. It appears to have a nice pattern. These two are from the same hive. Should they/do they vary like this?

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7364/photo070409003.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3095/photo070409007.jpg

Ok this is pretty much the last question .... Are these the start of queen cells?

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2394/photo070409011.jpg

Thanks for thoughts... Please excuse some of the foggy pics. Had the phone in my coverall pocket and .... well, I was warm LOL

doak · July 04, 2009, 07:20:43 PM

That looks like a supercedure queen "cup" there just in they need it.
I would keep an eye on it, about every 7 to 10 days.
You will not see as many cups up on the frame like that as you will see along the bottom edge of the frame. :)doak

joker1656 · July 04, 2009, 07:24:16 PM

So, they are MAYBE unhappy with the queen? If they are, should I not let them deal with her as they wish?

joker1656 · July 04, 2009, 07:30:35 PM

Also, this is the pic that should go with the second group. I accidently put the honey pic in twice.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8314/photo070409006q.jpg

Robo · July 04, 2009, 08:56:58 PM

Other than perhaps being on the verge of honey bound, I won't worry about those brood patterns. When space becomes critical, they will put nectar in cells to dry which prevents the queen from laying in them.

Queen cups are normal, it is no indication of supersedure.

qa33010 · July 04, 2009, 09:02:22 PM

My hives, especially my 'russian' hives have queen cups and empty cells all the time. Doesn't mean they may be unhappy with the queen.

My bees will not draw out comb unless there is a reason to. Things are slowing down a little right now so they are mainly capping what they have.

If I have no open brood or eggs I look for the queen. I also put in a frame with eggs to see if they are going to make one to replace the one they lost or may want to replace. I just had this happen this year and they superceded the old queen. I was worried one time about spotty brood pattern and learned it was from newly hatched bees and the hive was going into dearth mode (some of my queens shut down when not enough stores are coming in).

joker1656 · July 05, 2009, 12:03:51 AM

Thanks, to all. You are always a great help.

If they are honey bound, should I do anything about that?

Also, the queen cells are in the top box of a hive where I found a frame that had chalkbrood a little over a week ago. I did not go completely through the box, but did look at a couple of frames. There were many eggs and they looked tight. I just wondered if those were queen cells, and if they meant anything.

Thanks!