Will bees move queen larva?? Weird emergency cell placement...

[Tara]

I started this thread in the general forum but no one seems to want to answer. Do any of you queen breeders know if bees move larva?

I made a 4-frame split Thursday evening, gave them Friday to realize the queen wasn't around, and went in this morning to make On-the-Spot cuts so they'd build queen cells there.

Pulled out a frame that had some old wax moth damage on it, and found this:







I didn't think the queen was even laying in that area--you can see the nectar and pollen being stored surrounding the cups, and there isn't ANY young brood on that whole side of the frame! Would the bees build a cup in a convenient area and MOVE eggs or larva into it?? (I mean, we do it with grafting...) Will they ever build a cup around a cell with no larva/eggs? I see three cups, with maybe the beginning of a fourth (right below the bottom right cup).

I hadn't ever heard of such things happening...

Practiced making some OTS cuts anyways. The bees' queen will probably hatch out first, but ah well.

Please chime in if you have any inputs on this! I'm quite confused!

~Tara

[sqkcrk]

Some folks suspect that bees move eggs, but it is a widely held belief that they don't. I, for one, don't understand why, in nature, such a thing would happen. But, I know I don't have as wild an imagination as others.

[Velbert]

No they will not move larva all they need to do is start building around the larva and keep feeding it royal jelly.

But when you make one queen less they will construct Queen cell cups in different locations some with no larva in the comb or eggs usually if you make a divide from a hive that has brood in all stages they will build the cups around the small larva.

but they will makes cups more so when they have been brood less and queen less for a long period in desperation to raise a queen if queen less lone enough the workers will lay an egg or eggs in q cell cups. Have seen them construct a queen cell around a cell of pollen several time.

[beedeetee]

I took 7 frames of capped brood (no open brood) one time to make a cell builder. I didn't look in every cell, but the queen was busy in all of the hives that I took the frames from on frames at least 2-3 away from the frames taken.

Every frame ended up with queen cells (from 4 to 13 cells per frame). It looks like the queen takes a trip around the hive every evening depositing a few eggs in a cell here and there.

In a way, I can see that this would be a safety mechanism that the bees might have. If something (predator) damaged or removed the frame or two of very young eggs or larva, the hive would be hopelessly queenless. If the queen travels around laying eggs on each frame daily, they would have a much better survival.

[Dave Burrup]

I know that most beeks believe that workers do not move eggs. Last year we had a hopelessly queenless hive that we had a tough time getting to raise a queen. The queen had been gone long enough that there was very little open larvae present. We put a frame of eggs in from another hive. A week later we had queen cells on that frame, as expected, but there was a queen cell plus larvae on a frame that could not have had any eggs. It was even on the side of that frame away from the frame with eggs. I do not know how to explain it.
Dave

[Velbert]

When a colony is queen less long enough the workers will lay a egg in queen cell yes just one. If they are queen less very long you might find more than 1 egg have seen them even feed royal jelly the cells looked good but if you know they have been with out a laying queen then all of a sudden you think a miracle has happened you got a queen cell and you think that maybe all hope was not lost a chance, i have a q cell. Don't Count on it

if you have a ripe cell that is from a laying queen there is other brood, worker brood in the colony whether open or sealed

it takes worker brood 21 days to hatch and 16 days on average for Q cell to hatch

if you have sealed or open queen cell and no worker brood in combs it not right.

[sqkcrk]

I didn't think the queen was even laying in that area--you can see the nectar and pollen being stored surrounding the cups, and there isn't ANY young brood on that whole side of the frame! Would the bees build a cup in a convenient area and MOVE eggs or larva into it?? (I mean, we do it with grafting...) Will they ever build a cup around a cell with no larva/eggs? I see three cups, with maybe the beginning of a fourth (right below the bottom right cup).
~Tara

Are there any eggs in those cups? Bees will make cups for future use. at least that's what I think that they woul;d be for. Who knows what the bees think or plan?

These are just queen cups. Which doesn't mean much really. Only that they ar queen cups. Bees seem to like having them around.