Queen cells?

[Potlicker1]

Alright everyone. It's mid August and upon inspection today a pretty strong hive has 3 queen cells hanging. All on the bottom of the frame. I scrapped two off and left one. The colony is queen right. What the hec are they doing this late in the season? Do I need to ber concerned? Is it to late to start a split? :?

[Potlicker1]

I'm suprised no one has a comment about this??

[Cindi]

potlicker.  I am going to respond.  But...I don't know your area, so my comments would not be the greatest.  I think that if you have a queenright hive, things will be OK.   The existing queen will find the cell and kill the queen inside this cell.  I would presume that the hive is doing really good, as you say.

I don't think that these are swarm cells, my impression of swarm cells is that there are more than 3, maybe they are just queen cups and the bees were practicing building.  But the location does indicate swarm cells, they are usually on the bottom of the frame.  You will get more responses, just hold tight.  Have a wonderful day, best of the life.  Cindi

[Mici]

the number suggests a supercedure, position swarming.
considering the time of the year, they're MOST PROBABLY superceding.

I WOULD, not be concerned and look after a week or so to check the queens. sometimes mother and daughter co-exist for a long time, sometimes mother gets offended and leaves with half the bees so...if you'll be able to see 2 laying queens, take out the old one.
but it's hard to say..the old one could swarm even earlier but..this time of the year, i doubt. I would probably just do like i said.

however they could be just...making sure they'll make it, i swear to god i witnised production AND destruction of MINIMUM 50 QC in one colony, they didn't swarm!!!!

however i think you can see why no one commented this..it's very hard to say and give a GOOD advice.

[Potlicker1]

Yeah the confusing part is due to the time of the year for starters and also that their niether crowded or without a queen. The one cell I left in was completly closed up and as I believe I stated the other two were destroyed when I pulled the frame out. I did see the pupae in the cells. I guess if they're going to supercede this would be a good time of the year. Thanks

[Brian D. Bray]

Things have been wierd this year.  I had a swarm come through my orchard (not my bees) and hang out.  I only had a medium deep nuc to hive them in.  They were testy--started hitting me when i got within a few feet of the swarm.  Obviously a dearth swarm as they had no stores with them.  I hived them and gave them a boardman feeder and they still absconded the next day.  I found that unusual--absconding from a hive with a food source so I checked my hives--All were in a dearth mode.  I set up a yard feeder and began feeding all of the hives. 
I just moved 2 of my hives to my brothers place in Eastern Washington--they were very light weight, had stopped drawing comb and cut back on brood production. Actually I traded the 2 hives for 8 pedigreed racing pigeons.  I've been into bees since I was 11 and my brothers been into pigeons for just as long.  Now we both do both.

I still have 4 hives in my back yard and have to feed.  Me, feeding, he who preaches against uneccessary feeding.  The creeks gone dry (been that way since June) and the bees are getting their water from the lake a 1/2 mile away.  Here, on Fidalgo Island, I've found that even the blackberries had little nectar this year--the crop is less than a 1/3 of what it normally is.  That situation contines.

There are 3 main reasons for swarms: 1. Reproduction, 2. Overcrowding, & 3. Lack of stores (dearth).
Lots of swarms late in the season like many are experiencing this year are the mostly loikely the result of dearth.  Those who have observed or experienced late swarms should access their hives for food stores.

[Potlicker1]

Not to sure it's dearth related. They do seem to have honey supplies built up and they're coming and going like nuts. Not extra for me but on the outside frames of the chamber.I'm going to get another look this weekend. I'll let you all know what I've found.

[Zoot]

2 of my hives have always made queen cells for no reason that was apparent to me. I tended to fuss and fiddle with them a lot because of this and I'm convinced that I actually over-stressed one of them and caused it to weaken..it eventually succumbed to robbing, waxmoths, ants, etc. The other still makes occasional queen cells but I leave it alone and it's going strong. Beautiful, active laying queen, lots of honey, etc.

[Potlicker1]

Thanks for your hive update. It dosent seem like anything unusual is going on. I'm just going to let them "bee". :lol:

[Barngodess]

If the closed queen cells are along the side, the very edge of the frame, does that have a meaning to it ??

Melissa
;)

[rdy-b]

keep a eye open to see if they start to backfill the brood frames with honey this is a sure way to identify a urge to swarm     this works for me hope it helps you RDY-B

[Michael Bush]

>If the closed queen cells are along the side, the very edge of the frame, does that have a meaning to it ??

It would make me more likely to assume they are swarming.

Location of queen cells is one clue as to what the bees are doing with the queen cells, but so is the population of bees, the backfilling of the brood nest, the sound of the hum of the hive etc.

If they are preparing to swarm they will usually be reducing the brood nest by filling it with nectar.  They usually have a good population of bees.  Just before they swarm they will start making a warbling kind of hum.

[Cindi]

Michael:
> Just before they swarm they will start making a warbling kind of hum.

Now that is a very interesting piece of information.  If I ever hear this sound, I'll consider myself an unlucky woman  :shock:

Have a wonderful day, beautiful life.  Cindi