Possible Queen Cell - not 100% certain

Started by OzBuzz, October 17, 2010, 11:34:57 PM

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OzBuzz

October 17, 2010, 11:34:57 PM
G'day Everybody,

I've got a hive in which i do not want to lose the queen - she's perfect! and i want to breed from her. We're in to spring now - i've put a second box on the hive and there are still frames to be drawn out. I've been moving frames in to the top box to break up the brood nest etc to control swarming. The Queen is going great! plenty of brood lots of bees - she's still laying nicely. I've been monitoring some queen cups that have been formed over the past few weeks - none of them have any pupae in them and none of them are capped. There is one cell though that i'm not 100% certain as to whether it's a queen cell or just a drone cell and it is capped. There are what appears to be other drone cells in the vicinity...

I really do not want to lose this queen and i'm not keen on splitting the hive unless i 100% have to! i want to try and get some honey off it this year. Another complicating factor is i'm going overseas for four weeks in a weeks time...

What should i do?

backyard warrior

#1
October 17, 2010, 11:40:50 PM
split the hive !!!!!!!!!!  if your going to be gone and dont want to lose the queen

hardwood

#2
October 17, 2010, 11:48:40 PM
You can scratch the questionable cell open and watch closely for the next few days before you leave to see if they build a new one. That way you'll know what they're up to.

If they make a new queen cell be prepared to split the queen away. If it is just a drone cell you can have a tiny little funeral.

Scott
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

caticind

#3
October 18, 2010, 01:46:07 PM
I will say that I haven't seen a hive build just one queen cell at a time.  If you have other queen cups that are remaining empty even as this unknown cell is capped, that suggests it's not a queen cell.

Can you post a picture of the cell in question?  That might be the easiest way for the forum to advise you.
The bees would be no help; they would tumble over each other like golden babies and thrum wordlessly on the subjects of queens and sex and pollen-gluey feet. -Palimpsest

OzBuzz

#4
October 19, 2010, 12:14:46 AM
Thanks Caticind, that was my thought/hope too... I'm going to open it up tomorrow afternoon so i will take a picture. The cell is amongst a cluster of drone cells so i'm fairly confident it is just a drine cell that's been built out a little
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