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ocba - Re: [ocba] Queen Cells

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: "Dan Kyburz" <dkyburzus AT gmail.com>
  • To: "'Thomas Grizzle'" <griz AT mindspring.com>, <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Queen Cells
  • Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 13:39:07 -0400

Newbie giving his 2 cents, but I would…

A)     Make sure you can find a queen or at least eggs or have someone help you in locating them.  If not I would install a new queen since the queen cups were destroyed.  (Did they have eggs or royal jelly in them?)

B)     Possibly give them more room by adding another medium super on top.  Especially if you think there are questionably building swarm cells.  Wasn’t sure which edge you are referring to.  I’ve found that I have waited to long to add more space.  You may also consider rotating your empty frames more inward.

Best of luck,

Dan

 

From: ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Grizzle
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 1:16 PM
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [ocba] Queen Cells

 

Hi All,

 

Take everything I am about to say with a grain of salt.  A newbee is talking here.

 

I am 3.5 weeks into installing a bee box and queen (from Busy Bee) into a single new 10-frame hive with nothing but foundation.  I fed them the equivalent of two 5 pound bags of sugar and stopped feeding them at that point.  Today I went into the hive to check it out. 

 

There appeared to be more bees than I installed, that’s the first thing I noted.  There is honey stored away on parts of a few frames, and capped brood were visible.  I find searching for a queen a hopeless endeavor.  It is like looking at a giant oak tree on a breezy day and trying to find the biggest leaf.  Ain’t gonna happen.  That aside, I went through all 10 frames and found 4 queen cells, one in the middle of a frame, one more to the edge but not on the edge, and two on edges.  I destroyed all four.  Too late it occurred to me that I might have a failing queen and they were trying to “fix things.”

 

There were still two frames with no comb drawn out, so they are not overcrowded.  My Chapel Hill site is in a neighborhood next to a rather large forest (for in-town), the American Legion woods…about 20 acres, I’d estimate, and there are poplar trees here I am certain.  Water is not a problem.  Anyway…

 

What should I do?  Let them be(e) seems like the best option at this point.

 

Tom Grizzle




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