swarm cells in new package

goodeva · May 09, 2006, 07:48:36 PM

In one of my newly installed packages that is 3 weeks old I discovered swarm cells today. I found the queen and she is laying in every drawn out cell possible. not much capped brood in this hive yet next week should look much better. Anyway I removed the swarm cells and added a super on top to allow more room. 6 out of 10 frames have been drawn. I think that they have been storing honey and not leaving the queen much room to lay on the frames that have been drawn out. I havent had this situation with a package yet. Should I do anything else or does it matter.

newbee101 · May 09, 2006, 08:21:11 PM

Are you sure they were swarm cells?

goodeva · May 09, 2006, 08:28:12 PM

Yes they were peanut shaped to the left of center and just below the middle of the frame.

Michael Bush · May 09, 2006, 10:22:07 PM

Queen cells just below the middle of the frame would not be swarm cells. Those would be supercedure or emergency queen cells. Are you sure they aren't drone cells? Queen cells hang down vertically. Drone ceels are horizontal.

If the queen was killed, injured or has some other problem the bees may need a queen.

goodeva · May 10, 2006, 12:22:16 AM

The queen seems to be fine but you never know. I will check back at the end of the week and see if they are building anymore. I will take a pic of them if they are there for better resoultion.

Finsky · May 10, 2006, 02:21:51 AM

It is very rare that in that kind of situation nuc wants to swarm. I think that queen has some trouble like Michael says. Bees want to change the queen.

You may make this: If they make new queen cells let them raise them. Move brood frames with queen cells to upper box and put excluder between boxes.

Make upper entrance in different direction. When new queen emerges it can fly freely and mate. When it is mated, kill the old queen.

Old queen make brood downstairs and you get a new queen in upstairs.

Finsky · May 10, 2006, 02:25:50 AM

During 3 spring I bought queens from Italy. Half of nucs started to raise new queens inside a month even if queen layed eggs normally. Later in summer almost all hives changed the queen.

goodeva · May 10, 2006, 05:49:13 PM

Called Rossman today and explained the situation and they are sending a new queen to replace the current one.

goodeva · May 15, 2006, 05:18:23 PM

I got the new queen today and I went to the hive that built the queen cells. They have not built anymore queen cells. The current queen has filled up three frames on both sides with brood and most is capped. One frame is filled totally no honey or suryp in this frame on both sides. Do you think that because They were hived a little late and the bees had stored honey and sugar in most of the cells she was not able to lay and the bees thought she was faulty. Our should I go ahead and replace her just in case. That hive still dosent look like the one installed a week earlier. What should I do?

Michael Bush · May 16, 2006, 12:19:28 AM

It's up to you. You now have an extra queen. If you want to take a frame of brood and a frame of honey and a small nuc box (two frames would do) you could put her in there and have a spare queen around.

Brian D. Bray · May 16, 2006, 07:22:27 AM

The beingings of queen cells come and go like the tide. For whatever reasons the bees will start to build queen cells as a precaution, then when the threat is removed (whatever it was) the bees will tear it out and build regular comb in it's place.
I've seen them start a queen cell as one of the first things they do when drawing out foundation only to find it gone the next time I've checked.
Don't worry about queen cells until they have an occupant, then the location of the cell on the frame will tell you a lot of what's on the bee's minds.

amymcg · May 16, 2006, 08:12:40 AM

Every nuc or package I've ever had has had some queen cups at nearly every stage. It seems like they will build them anytime they are stressed just to be ready. Since you have any extra queen now, I would put her in a nuc just like MB described. Now you have two hives, or a bank for the queen in case something does happen to the other one.

goodeva · May 16, 2006, 11:16:57 PM

I'll do that. By the way the two cells that I removed from the hive last week did have lavra in them. I did not see any this week but I did see a cup. I'll stop by Dandants and pick up a nuc tomorrow. How long can I keep the queen in the cage? She has 4 workers in with her. I will not be able to nuc her till this weekend. I was tinking about putting a excluder on one of the hives and hanging her above and let the bees feed her. Will this work?

Michael Bush · May 16, 2006, 11:42:53 PM

>How long can I keep the queen in the cage?

If you put a drop of water on the screen everyday, probably about two weeks or until the attendants die. If you replace the attendants periodically, you can keep her indefinetly.