Queen Cell Found???

ChippewaBee · May 06, 2007, 05:14:03 PM

Today I found a single queen cell in the middle of my hive on the middle frame in the center of it. I also found my queen still dilingently laying eggs on a frame a couple over. I scraped off the queen cell with my hive tool and found a almost entire developed larve inside. My hive only has about 3 1/2 to 4 drawn out frames, what I did was place a empty frame in the center to maybe encorage the bees to stay busy instead of building new queen cells. Should I allow the bees to raise there own queen instead of the queen that I recieved with my package? She is laying in a great pattern with plenty of covered brood, honey and pollen distributed thoughout the frames. Any tips on what I should do? I forgot to mention that I installed the package on the second week of April.

newbee101 · May 06, 2007, 06:28:14 PM

Quotewhat I did was place a empty frame in the center to maybe encorage the bees to stay busy instead of building new queen cells

Dont split the brood nest.

QuoteShould I allow the bees to raise there own queen instead of the queen that I recieved with my package?

The bees know better than you. Since you already destroyed the queen cell, wait a week and check your frames for more of them. If they do it again (supercedure) let it be. While the new queen is growing and mating, your other queen is still laying. Do not kill your old queen, let them fight it out.
This advice is coming from a beekeeper with 4 years of experience. Others might have a different view.

Michael Bush · May 06, 2007, 08:15:39 PM

>I scraped off the queen cell with my hive tool and found a almost entire developed larve inside.

Why?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopcuttingswarmcells
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm

Odds are they have a reason for it. What you need to do is find out the reason.

ChippewaBee · May 06, 2007, 10:40:21 PM

Michael as your site says the books I read say I should cut the cells out especially the ones by Roger Morse. I will take your advice and not do anything since they are going to do it either way. I guess I scraped it because in my mind I felt it shouldn't be there. So should I remove the pieco foundation frame I placed in the spot of the full drawn frame I moved over?

Brian D. Bray · May 07, 2007, 06:02:34 PM

Except int the case of supercedure the queen has often left the hive already in the situation you found. It is obvious from the position of the queen cell and the presence of the old queen that the bees want to supercede her for some reason. They have their reasons that we know nothing about.

I you wish you might take the old queen and place her in a nuc with another frame of brood and honey if the bees build another supercedure cell. That way you'll still have a queen for ememrgency situations and if the old queen still gets replaced in the nuc you've lost nothing and still have an emergency queen.

One of my rules is to never remove a queen cell, you end up queenless more often than not. If the queen cell is removed and the queen has already swarmed you have just made your hive queenless. It is best to look at alternatives such as making a nuc.

ChippewaBee · May 07, 2007, 09:10:57 PM

I went back to the hive today and found maybe three queen cups starting. I like the idea of starting a nuc and do have a extra hive body laying around. I would have to purchase some more frames, inner cover, top cover and bottom board however. Would that be alright to start a nuc or should I have the smaller hive like I see pictures of?

Tyrone · May 07, 2007, 09:38:24 PM

My partner in this beekeeping enterprise and I opened one of our hives today and found at least a dozen queen cells. He had checked the hives last weekend and this hive had plenty of eggs and larvae but today there was no growth. No eggs, no larvae, just some capped brood. We are figuring that the queen made her break or died. We removed some of the queen cells but are at a loss as to what to do now. Should we requeen? Should we let the new queen(s) emerge and let them figure it out? Help!!!!!!!!

ChippewaBee · May 07, 2007, 09:53:21 PM

Tyrone it sounds like your bees swarmed... where the cells at the bottom or the top of the frames?

Michael Bush · May 08, 2007, 12:33:32 AM

Sounds like they swarmed. I hope you didn't destroy all the cells or they will be queenless. A frame of brood from another hive is good insurance. If a virgin DID emerge it will be another two weeks after emergence before I'd expect eggs and eight days or more after that before you'll see capped brood again.