supercedure?

newguy · June 24, 2005, 03:53:00 PM

i have one supercedure cell already capped. also the hive seems to be doing much better now than last week, i have lots of capped brood and lots of eggs, and they have drawn new comb, finally. i saw the queen so i know its not a laying worker and eggs were all the down in the bottom of the cells. if this new queen hatches will it kill the old queen or vise versa, or will the bees swarm? previously it seemed that the queen was out of space but only because they had not drawn any new comb. i think that maybe i have a new queen (maybe) and now that she has started laying the whole hive seems to be functioning a little more normally now. i guess my question is, should i just leave the queen cell and let them figure it out? thanks

bassman1977 · June 24, 2005, 03:57:12 PM

IMO leaving the bees do their thing is the best. If a new queen shows up, there will be a battle and whoever wins gets to lay eggs until you either requeen or their is another supercedure.

bill · June 25, 2005, 02:14:31 AM

In supercedure does the new queen and the old queen fight or do the bees kill the old queen?

thegolfpsycho · June 25, 2005, 10:38:52 AM

For years it was believed that the new queen, or the bees, quickly dispatched the old queen. There are many claims now that both queens may lay for some time, possibly until the old queen fails. Apparently, it is not that unusual for two queens to coexist in the same hive.

Michael Bush · June 27, 2005, 08:59:25 PM

I always let the bees sort it out. But then if there are SEVEAL cells I sometimes steal one for a nuc to have a spare queen around.

Everyone should have spare queen or two around. And you can mess with the nuc without losing your honey production. :)

EOHenry · June 28, 2005, 10:55:26 AM

How do you steal one of the cells? Do take the whole frame out or just the cell and then what do you do with it? I'm interested in starting a nuc like that but don' t know how.
Henry

Michael Bush · June 28, 2005, 06:31:44 PM

>How do you steal one of the cells?

As usual, it depends. If it's wax and a wire isn't running through where the cell is, you can wait until it's looking kind of fibrous on the end (proabably day 14) and cut the cell out and put it in another hive. This doesn't work for plastic foundation or the wire runs through the foundation where the cell is attached. In that case you'd have to use the whole frame.