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  • From: Robyn Holmes <whatbirdsplungethrough AT yahoo.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org, " Jr.Rex L. Williams" <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive
  • Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 07:39:03 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks to everyone's useful input and the fact of final exams, I used the
wait-and-see method with my queen cell and did nothing. I glanced at it last
weekend and it was still empty, and my middle frames are filled pretty solid
with capped brood. I'm planning to cut out the cell and add a deep this week.
Someone mentioned that new hives occasionally do this "just in case," and
this seems like the most plausible explanation for me. It sounds like your
situation is a bit different, Rex, sorry I can't be more helpful!

Robin

--- On Mon, 5/7/12, Rex L. Williams, Jr. <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Rex L. Williams, Jr. <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [ocba] newbee question: queen cell in a new hive
> To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Monday, May 7, 2012, 7:46 PM
> 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
>
> -----Original Message-----
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> On Behalf Of ocba-request AT lists.ibiblio.org
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> Subject: ocba Digest, Vol 86, Issue 1
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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/
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>
>
>
> --
> 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:
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> >
>
>
>
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