Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

What Would You Do?

2K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
Prior to going out of town, I had a strong hive out of which I had cut three queen cells from the bottom of the frames, (swarm cells). Now upon my return from vacation the hive still has lots of bees but upon inspection today I found 5 or 6 queen cells on the bottom of the frames that obviously showed virgin queens had indeed, in fact, emerged. There are no eggs to be found anywhere in the hive and there is very little brood left. I removed a frame of brood from another hive and placed in this one thinking it might help their morale. Do you think this hive now has a valid queen that now just needs to mate and come back and start laying? I am tempted to just take the "wait and see" approach. Do you agree with me or would you purchase a new queen at this point and try to install her in the hive? Oh by the way, we are in the middle of our honey flow here! Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.
:confused:
 
#3 ·
if there are approxiamately the same number of bees in the box then these cells were not swarm cells.

so how much time has past from the time you cut the first cells till now? from larval stage to a fully functional laying queen you should be thinking about 25 to 30 days (somewhat dependent on weather).

if the hive was quite robust in terms of bees and resources and you are still within the time window (suggested above) I suspect then the hive most likely contain a virgin queen. placing a mated queen into this hive would be much like tossing bucks out the window. I would leave the hive alone until the above time frame had passed (it ain't such a good idea to disturb a hive with a virgin and no green brood since the hives is likely to kill the virgin or any queen that is present for that matter). much like hunting, some time the best strategy is to simply set and wait.
 
#6 ·
If the empty queen cells you found show a "hole" in the side of them, that means that the first virgin queen that emerged killed the one(s) that have not emerged. The hole in the side is indicative. Afterwards, the bees will tear down the cell(s) and clean out the dead queen larva(e).
 
#7 ·
One or two of the queen cells were perfect with the exit hole exactly on the tip end as it shoud be. I found two or three other queen cells with the sides ripped out. It has been raining here the last couple days...so I haven't been back into my hives just yet. I do appreciate the input!
 
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