Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

package bees, queen cell???

3K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
Hi,
Hive a 3 lb package with queen on Friday evening, went into hive yesterday saw the queen no eggs yet but shes big and fat and the bees seem to like her but near the top of one of the frames found a queen cell about 1/4 in the making no egg in it and they didn/t seem to be paying much attention to it so i whack it down . What do you guys and gals think whats happening, their working their tails off for sure. info apprecated. thanks yours in our great hobby
Walt
 
#2 ·
What you have is a queen cup not a queen cell. They naturally build these for a rainy day in case they need them. All hives have them and they really do not mean much. I would leave them alone or they will just waste more time building more.

When doing a hive inspection it is easy to notice if you have more than the regular queen cup and if they are adding wax to any cups. Easy way to tell what they are up to.
 
#5 ·
greetings,
when opening the hive and the first thing i saw was this queen cell(cup) all i thought about was they are going to kill my queen. she isn't marked but was very easy to spot very large and a reddish brown head and very golden body. they seem content with her as she walked across the comb, but i did not see any eggs ,she looks full of eggs. I hived her last friday and went in there on wednesday. Thats 5 days hived her late on that friday around 7PM and problly took 24 hrs to release. Is this normal no eggs lets say 4 days later not counting the first nite?
Just a beautiful queen. if they try to supercede her the bees and I are going to have trouble ill do anything to protect that beauty. LOL
Walt
 
#6 ·
It is normal for them to not lay eggs for the first several days. The bees have to build comb, they have to coat it with propolis and disinfect the comb and they have to get organized. Also, eggs are very hard to see through a veil if you're not good at spotting them. Often there are some but you're not seeing them. For sure you should see capped broood by two weeks after you install them. Of course larvae get easier and easier to see as they bet bigger. When you see capped brood you can figure she started laying 9 days before that.

Personally I never tear up a queen cell unless I'm trying to raise queens and I'm trying to make sure an early one doesn't kill the rest or I'm trying to get rid of cells from larvae that are too old. Otherwise if they want to raise a queen, I'd do a split or just let them. But mostly they build a lot of cups and don't use them.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top