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  • From: "Rex L. Williams, Jr." <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com>
  • To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive
  • Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 20:46:11 -0400

Hello Everyone,

I am also a new beekeeper this year and this weekend I noticed the same
problem that Robin described a week ago, a queen cell in my new hive. I
only noticed three cups, one on each of three frames off the center-bottom.
One was capped on Sunday. I did much of the same advice that was given here
in terms of shifting the frame positions to put bare foundation closer to
the brood. I also added my second hive body and moved a frame of bees to
the upper box. I'm also noticing that I have honey stores along the tops of
some of my frames and, after doing some reading last night and today, am
slightly concerned about being honeybound, though I think there are still
some frames that do not have complete honey coverage over the tops of the
comb.

Another thing that I read is to uncap the honey when trying to get them to
go into the second brood box. The idea being that the bees will move the
honey and this will allow a change in the honey barrier. Do any of you
think that this would be advisable? I am somewhat concerned about the
possibility of inadvertently inducing a swarm because the first layed brood
have not even emerged yet and I doubt either colony, the remaining and the
swarm, would be able to survive. Should I be worried about losing the hive
right now?

Also, for Robin, would you mind giving an update on how your situation has
turned out?

Rex

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Today's Topics:

1. newbee question: queen cell in a new hive? (Robyn Holmes)
2. Re: newbee question: queen cell in a new hive? (Marty Hanks)
3. Re: newbee question: queen cell in a new hive? (Randall Austin)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:52:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Robyn Holmes <whatbirdsplungethrough AT yahoo.com>
Subject: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive?
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID:
<1335815530.20759.YahooMailClassic AT web160301.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi everyone!

My workers are making/tending a queen cell right in the middle of one of the
middle frames in my 3-week-old hive. There is only one. Should I be
concerned about this? Obviously my queen is laying, there's tons of brood at
different stages. Could they have decided they need a new queen anyway, or
should I worry about swarming? They haven't even finished drawing comb on
2-3 of the outside frames, so it seems like they have plenty of room to
grow.

Thanks a million,

Robin


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:18:38 -0400
From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
Subject: Re: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive?
To: Robyn Holmes <whatbirdsplungethrough AT yahoo.com>, Orange County
Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
<CANHiRU9tWtLrDKrkm9JiuMXwucbjvKRzC74TOZG07zCBQv1MyA AT mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Robyn,

that does souond weird, but i will have to say i have seen this twice now
this year. i agree w/ your read on there being room to grow and "almost"
100% of the time swarm cells are at the bottom of the frames...so you are
also right in my opinion that they...for some reason...want a new queen but
are most liely not looking to swarm.

in the one hive i saw this in the new queen ~4 weeks old was laying in a
random and small pattern..so NOT a good layer at all...BUT they had at least
6-7 new queens cells going at once. SO we just let them replace her.

now back to you and what the heck to do....if im "assuming" that a "3 week
hive" means a package just installed and the brood pattern looked tight and
the eggs you could see were only single eggs per cell then i'd take off the
cell and see what happens. sometimes in this situation the queen will get a
late start and maybe trigger a reaction like this...again doesn't sound like
it....but w/ brood about to pop you should be all fine moving forward.
Its the one cell that a bit weird.

one other idea is to remove the cell then rotate the outside 2 frames in
one. so #'s 1 & 10 go to 2 & 9 and they get pushed out. i would also add a
new box above in a week and check back in. Just make sure there are no other
cells hiding....you may have to move the bees around a bit. a gintle smoke
is good or your finger if your brave enough yet.

good luck,
marty hanks
just bee

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 3:52 PM, Robyn Holmes <
whatbirdsplungethrough AT yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone!
>
> My workers are making/tending a queen cell right in the middle of one
> of the middle frames in my 3-week-old hive. There is only one. Should
> I be concerned about this? Obviously my queen is laying, there's tons
> of brood at different stages. Could they have decided they need a new
> queen anyway, or should I worry about swarming? They haven't even
> finished drawing comb on 2-3 of the outside frames, so it seems like
> they have plenty of room to grow.
>
> Thanks a million,
>
> Robin
> _________________________________________
> ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
> Manage Your Subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/
>



--
Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries

Home of the Orange County Honey Project.
"Created by Artisans....Bottled by Humans"
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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:15:31 -0400
From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive?
To: Robyn Holmes <whatbirdsplungethrough AT yahoo.com>
Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <4F9F0F03.7090402 AT gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Robyn,

It is not uncommon for packages to try to make their "own" queen. If they've
only made one supercedure cell, they may not be all that serious. If it were
my hive, I would remove that one cell before it progresses too far and then
just keep an eye on things. Most likely you don't have anything to worry
about, everything will be fine once the new bees start emerging and the hive
starts really rolling. Or not. But that would be my guess.

Randall Austin

On 4/30/2012 3:52 PM, Robyn Holmes wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> My workers are making/tending a queen cell right in the middle of one of
the middle frames in my 3-week-old hive. There is only one. Should I be
concerned about this? Obviously my queen is laying, there's tons of brood at
different stages. Could they have decided they need a new queen anyway, or
should I worry about swarming? They haven't even finished drawing comb on
2-3 of the outside frames, so it seems like they have plenty of room to
grow.
>
> Thanks a million,
>
> Robin
> _________________________________________
> ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
> Manage Your Subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/
>



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End of ocba Digest, Vol 86, Issue 1
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