Found queen cells and supercedure cells today

annette · March 17, 2007, 10:29:57 PM

What is going on?I found about 15 queen cells and one supercedure cell both at the same time in the hive. I tried to find the queen to place her in the split I was going to do today, but could not find her. Do you think they already swarmed?? I am very confused.

tig · March 17, 2007, 10:41:05 PM

was it a strong colony to begin with? how many frames? what does it look like now? are there still plenty bees or does it look like the bees lessened?

Kirk-o · March 18, 2007, 09:45:31 AM

Looks like swarming
kirk-o

Michael Bush · March 18, 2007, 10:29:46 AM

They either did or are about to. I would split them. If you want a bunch of queens put every frame with a queen cell in a separate split with at least a frame of honey. Then you can divvy the rest up as you see fit, depending on what you want. If you just want to keep them from swarming (assuming they haven't) then make sure each split has some queen cells and do an even split.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

Zoot · March 18, 2007, 01:36:15 PM

If you don't have any significant hoeny stores on hand yet are there any other feeding solutions for a split with all of the queen cells? What about warmth - it's still quite cold here especially at night. Is the object to install about the same number of bees along with the queens as you would in a cut down, etc?

MB - is there any more detailed info about the subsequent management of this sort of split on your site? I didn't see anything. What do you do with the queens you want to save once they've hatched? I assume that, if left for too long, the bees will eventually select one and dispose of the rest.

annette · March 18, 2007, 04:43:31 PM

This is what happened. Today, I finally split the hive as follows:

Used a ten frame large size brood box. Placed 2 full frames of brood with bees clinging, 1 frame of brood with a large capped queen cell on it and bees clinging. And 2 frames of mostly honey. then shook as many bees from original box as possible into this new hive. Fed them sugar syrup and closed it up. It sits a couple of feet away from my original hive.

Now I have my original hive that has numerous queen cells and supercedure cells, brood and lots of honey.

How did I do?????

annette · March 18, 2007, 04:44:21 PM

Yes, this was a very strong hive all through the winter.

annette · March 18, 2007, 04:52:26 PM

Oh Michael Bush,

If you are wondering why I did not place anymore queen cells into that new hive, this is why.

I have as my original hive, one large size brood box, and 2 small honey supers for the next brood chamber. I do this because I cannot lift such heavy boxes. Unfortunately, when I have to do something like transfer frames like this, I am at a loss because of the different size frames. I found only one good size capped queen cell on my large frames and this is the frame I placed in the donor hive. All my other queen cells were made in the upper smaller honey supers and I could not place them into the larger size boxes.

Do you think things will be OK with that one queen cell????

I appreciate all your help

Michael Bush · March 18, 2007, 08:32:11 PM

>What do you do with the queens you want to save once they've hatched?

What do you WANT to do with them. You can requeen a hive with them by removing the old queen and doing a newspaper combine. You can use a push in cage to introduce them. You can just let the nuc build up and use it as a split. You can just leave it and have a spare queen for emergencies.

>Do you think things will be OK with that one queen cell?

Probably.

annette · March 18, 2007, 09:39:47 PM

Michael,

A question. Today I split the hive as I mentioned before. Now I am feeding this new hive sugar syrup. What is keeping the original hive from robbing this sugar syrup from my new hive since they are just a few feet away from each other. And what about the frame of honey I placed in my new hive. What will keep my original hive from getting at that frame. The new hive doesn't really have much defenses right now as they do not know where they are and they do not have a queen yet.
Just curious. I did not place an entrance reducer on the new hive since it has been very warm here, is one needed to protect the new hive??

thanks
Annette from Placerville California

Michael Bush · March 19, 2007, 09:08:41 AM

>What is keeping the original hive from robbing this sugar syrup from my new hive since they are just a few feet away from each other.

The guard bees.

> And what about the frame of honey I placed in my new hive. What will keep my original hive from getting at that frame.

The guard bees.

> The new hive doesn't really have much defenses right now as they do not know where they are and they do not have a queen yet.

I'd reduce the entrance enough to create a small traffic jam. A robber screen would be nice, but probably not necessary.

>Just curious. I did not place an entrance reducer on the new hive since it has been very warm here, is one needed to protect the new hive??

It wouldn't hurt unless you see them bearding from the heat.