What to make of these pictures?

[pains_72]

Hi Everyone,

I checked my hive yesterday (installed from a package 6 weeks ago) and saw what seem to be queen cells.

My wife was there with her camera so I snapped pictures. I put them all at:

http://newbeekeeper.blogspot.com

I'm trying to figure out what conclusions to draw and what action to take if any.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
-Paul

[Beorn]

Paul,

From looking at the pictures and from what I've read, I'd say you're hive is going to swarm soon. I can't tell where on the frame those cells are in the the bottom three pictures, but the top picture sure looks like a swarm cell to me. My advice would be to scour this forum for information on how to stop/delay the swarm and how to make plans to hopefully catch it and save it. Better get yourself some more beeware. It looks like you'll need it.

Michael

[Apuuli]

Yep, those are queen cells (or perhaps that's where honey-roasted peanuts REALLY come from...). Packages seem to make supercedure cells at about 6 weeks (see Beekeeping for Dummies). Assuming that you have a good queen and the bees are just over reacting to an unbalanced age distribution in the population, you can either destroy them and shouldn't have any more until they decide to swarm next year or the queen fails, or you can just let them go and hope the supercedure goes well.

My first package did the same thing. I destroyed the queen cells (with extreme prejudice) and they didn't complain after that.

[sistone]

The last two pictures the queen cells appear to be in the middle of the frame? If so they maybe supercedure cells and somethings happened to the queen. The first one's do appear to be swarm cells. Been there done that. How is your brood pattern?

[IndianaHoney]

Those do appear to be queen cells. I would not have destroyed those cells at all. They may have gone queenless, swarmed already, or needed to superceed their old queen for some unknown reason. By destroying those cells, you may have taken away all hope of them raising a new queen. I would look for the queen, and eggs. If you don't find either, you may need to purchase a new queen for them. If you ever find queen cells in the future, remember that when it comes to replacing a queen, the bees know what is best, you're just along for the ride. Never destroy a queen cell before you know exactly why they're trying to raise a new queen.

My policy is that I never destroy a queen cell unless it is hive that I made queenless for the purpose of raising queens, or I have a new laying queen that I plan to introduce.

[sistone]

If they haven't swarmed yet you may have a chance to catch, them. But you'll need to make a trip to Ruhl's and pick up a nuc or two and some frames and foundation.

I missed the first one, but caught a later one which is doing great.

[Ken&Andria]

I'm trying to figure out what conclusions to draw and what action to take if any.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

We are new beekeeps as well. Found supercedure cells a few weeks ago (See thread "Supercedure cells"). Destroyed the queen cells, but that must have made them mad. Last hive inspection I did not go through the bottom box as well as I should have. They swarmed on me today!

My advice is to get someone with some experience to look at your hive before they swarm, or you'll end up like me, calling for help after the fact.

On the other hand, I guess this is part of the fun. A wise man once told me, if you never mess up, you're not trying hard enough!

Ken H.

[berkshire bee]

From what I saw of your other pictures it looked like you had a good brood pattern on the frames. Are they still in one deep, bringing in lots of pollen and nectar using all of the space the queen wants to lay in?

[pains_72]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all of the feedback, I added some photos of the frames in case seeing the pattern might help:

http://newbeekeeper.blogspot.com

Also, to give a little more info on what I saw.

1) I definitely saw capped brood.

2) Some of the frames looked exactly like what I expected (brood in the center with honey around). Some of the frames looked a little uneven, which had me concerned (like the first picture there, where the frame looked a little scattered).

3) I saw new bees hatching, but I didn't notice larvae or eggs (sometimes I have trouble seeing the tiny eggs, but the fact that I didn't see larvae worried me) I was a little preoccupied with the queen cells so I might have missed them.

4) Most of the queen cells were in the middle of the frames, one was toward the bottom (my earlier pictures were cropped, but I put the full pictures up now to give you an idea).

5) I noticed quite a bit of pollen as well as some capped honey. Could it be that they've become honey bound?

6) I haven't spotted the queen, but as a new person I usually just look for eggs or young larvae and just leave it at that. I am new to handling a hive so it is possible that I might have killed her accidentally.

Thanks to everyone for their help, this advice is very much appreciated.

-Paul

[IndianaHoney]

It sounds and looks like your hive is queenless. If you find queen cells in the middle of a frame, it is an emergency cell, meaning they lost the queen for some reason. These were capped queencells that were in use, but be aware that sometimes hives will either maintain a few empty queencells, or they just haven't broken down the old ones. I would leave them alone for two more days, then look for eggs again. If you don't find any eggs, give them a new queen.

[pains_72]

Thanks to everyone for the info, I thought I'd write up a summary to see if I have a proper idea of what's going on. This is sort of where I am as I understand it.

A) It could be that my queen is dead/injured/sick, whatever. In this case I can either requeen, or let the supersedure cells raise their own. If I let them raise their own the potential downsides are a less healthy queen and loss of honey producing time.

B) It could be the normal six week supersedure cells that several people reported (I am right at the six week mark). In that case I can either cut them away or leave them?

C) It could be a swarm is coming. If that's the case then I can either take steps to prevent the swarm or just let it happen.

If this is all correct I'm thinking of letting the hive run its course. I am doing this as a learning experience so I get the feeling that I'd learn a lot. I'm currently leaning towards "A" as the most likely scenario just because I didn't notice larvae the last time I checked the hive.

I plan on moving the hive this winter to my in-laws land (they live on ten acres and would really enjoy a hive), my plan was to keep it in my suburban backyard the first season as a way to learn as much as I can. I was thinking I could always requeen next season.

If scenario "B" is happening, what would be the consequence of not cutting the queen cells away?

If "C" then I guess I'll keep an eye out for bees in the trees.

What do you think? Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

Thanks to everyone for their help.

-Paul

[balhanapi]

I am a newbee myself so this is just an opinion.
I am with indianahoney on this. I think you should not destroy those queen cells and let them do what they r doing. You have capped brood(worker and drone), I don't see any larvae/eggs. so your queen is missing since some time and it appears that your bees are trying to raise a queen. you have worker brood adjacent to your queen cell so its very probable that you have a viable queen inside that queen cell. I would wait a week and check back again. if all goes well you'l have a laying queen in about two weeks.
Good luck

[Keith Benson]

Some of those queen cells looked capped. If that is the case, and some are swarm cells, I think they have already swarmed.

Keith