They've started!!

[EmsE]

I began working through my hive on Wednesday with my 8 year old daughter, telling her we didn't need to worry about queen cells just yet. I'm working on a double brood box and felt happy that my queen had lots of space, however there on the 4th frame in the top box was a Queen cell occupied by a large larva! Previous inspection was 6 days before (I've been trying to find and mark my queen- with no luck!).

I was hoping to raise another colony this year but I thought I had more time to prepare. Thankfully 2 experienced bee-keepers came to my rescue, found my elusive queen (so she is finally marked) and arranged the hive for it to be split.

Fingers crossed everything is going to work out- my first (assisted) attempt at raising a new queen. There are plenty of drones in my hive so I'm hoping there are others in the local area....and that the weather gets warmer!

[Stromnessbees]

Hi EmsE

- just one queen cell? I would say they are preparing for supercedure rather than swarming. One of my colonies is doing the same and I am not going to disturb them except for clipping the queen's wing, just in case.

Good luck with it anyway, Doris

[Jimbo]

Hi EmsE,

I would agree with Doris one queen cell is usually supercedure. Another clue is a supercedure queen cell is usally found on the frame either in the middle or top sides etc. where as swarm queen cells are usually found hanging near or on the bottom of the frames. I would find who are the nearest beekeepers to you and ask if they have a lot of drones hatched in their hives. Renfrewshire in not that far from me (West Coast) and on inspection of 10 hives so far this week only 3 have hatched drones and only with 1 or 2 in each hive. There is the usual amount of capped drone cells. From my records this year the colonies are about 1 -2 weeks behind where they have been in the last few years but with the recent warm spell we are having they are catching up. Good luck and let us know if your new queen gets mated.

Jimbo

[EmsE]

Hi Doris & Jimbo,

The bee keepers who helped also think it is likely to be supercedure, however when we checked through the hive, we weren't certain the other queen cups were empty as the light wasn't good (the eggs I thought I saw were probably wishful thinking). I felt it would be best to seperate the hives because if it wasn't supercedure then I'd lose a lot of bees and could annoy a lot of locals, but if it was supercedure and the queen doesn't mate properly with it been so early, then that wouldn't be good either.

I've been told that if the bees with the old queen try and raise more queen cells in the next few weeks then it definitely was supercedure, which brings me back to the question....'but what if she doesn't mate properly?'

What is the best way to deal with supercedure?
1) leave the bees to it or
2) separate then reunite when satisfied with the new queen?
Does the pondering get any easier with experience?

From what I've heard, I've probably got most of the drones in the area which isn't ideal.

My queen is one that was raised last year and although there is a lot of concern about how good they are due to the wet weather last year she seems to be really good and wonder what it is that the bees aren't happy with. (more pondering time on that one as well).

I'll let you know how it goes.

EmsE

[EmsE]

Well I couldn't resist- I had to see what was happening in both hives. The one with my Queen cell (now sealed) had a few other queen cells in. I removed a few of them but have kept a couple (on a different frame to the sealed cell frame) to see if it can be put into a nearby hive where the queen seems to have disappeared (although the bees themselves are very happy). I also managed to reduce it down to 1 brood box.

The original hive, now 1 brood box, was packed with bees but with plenty of space for the queen to lay, and a few new queen cells have appeared again! The bees have been working well on the foundation (5 of the frames). I've put the super on (all foundation) to see if they will draw it out as well.

I got this colony as a 5 frame nucleus in July last year and it built up very quickly. In August (when I carried out my first inspection with my daughter on our own) we discovered lots of queen cells, 1 of which was sealed. I destroyed all of the Queen cells, hoping it was the right thing to do, and when my mentor had a look he removed a few I had missed. We put this down to the hive been overcrowded and provided another brood box as they weren't entertaining the idea of drawing out the foundation in the super I put on for them (.....and am still trying to get them to). The rest of the year went quite smoothly after that until now.

My next step is???

[Adam]

You might just have a swarmy colony. Does the pondering get any easier? It should do. Especially if you keep just a couple of hives.

For your hive with the sealed queen cell, provided there are no more eggs in the hive, then emergency cells won't count for anything (you sometimes find just a small dead bee inside). Your queen will probably mate fine (most do).

If you have done an artificial swarm, sometimes the swarm urge doesn't go away. If you have 5 drawn frames, you don't need a super. I would cut out the queen cells in the first instance.