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Re-Queened now I have queen cells

2K views 26 replies 9 participants last post by  Nharcher1 
#1 ·
I had a really weak queen that I got in a package. I gave it a few months but she wasn't doing great and laying a spotty pattern. I re-queened on Tuesday by leaving the queen cage and checked today. Queen was out but I couldn't find her. I saw no evidence of eggs and 2 frames had queen cells. 1 was capped and about 5 others being tended too.

What should my next steps be? I only have 1 other hive that I can take anything from (and that hive is nasty nasty nasty but putting up tons of honey). I don't have much for expendable income to keep buying queens.
 
#2 ·
If the queen cell is capped then it was started before you placed the new queen in the hive it is 5 days +- from the time an egg hatches and the cell is capped. I would not be too concerned about eggs yet. But you should have checked for queen cells before you introduces the queen. Try to locate her. If you can find her. destroy the cells and give the queen some time to lay.
 
#3 ·
My guess is you did not check for queen cells before hanging that caged queen. They let her out and killed her because they had queens cooking. I know you say you cant keep buying queens but at this point of the game its the best thing to do. Its kinda late to let them raise thier queen and get built up in time for winter. Suck it up as a learning experience and go buy a new queen , just check for queen cells first. Just my opinion im sure someone else has another idea.
 
#15 ·
That is not always the case! I can tell you that from personal experience. I have a lot of students that jump the gun on similar situations. On more than a few occasions I have helped them go through the hive because as beginners they had trouble finding the queen. And low and behold there she was in the hive with queen cells. once that I recall on the same frame. There are few hard fast rules in the world of bees.
 
#10 ·
Could they have started them within that 12 hour period of having no queen? I realize the "time frame" for having a capped cell. But even as was mentioned 5+- days . This after noon was 4 1/2 days from when I squished the queen. The other queen cells were all still open. If they made one off of larva that was a couple days old?

If I do get another queen then do I get rid of the cells and put the caged queen in immediately?
 
#14 ·
You need a winter build up. Raising a queen now there wont be much of a build up because you probably taking 30 days plus to see eggs minus the time already so say 3 wks lost time. A nuc now where you live probably needs 2 boxes better yet id say 3. Thats a bit to ask them to to. You would probably end up combining them to survive.. just my thought.
 
#16 ·
They won't kill the old queen right away during a supercedure, but the one queen intro I did that failed was a result of queen cells being started. I almost saved that queen from getting balled, but didn't keep both holes covered in the queen cage. Popped her in one entrance and she flew out the other. I get a few introduced queen cells rejected for the same reason. Find other queen cells in the nuc. In this case they only have a couple of hours to get one started.
 
#21 ·
Beehive Honeycomb Pollinator Insect Apiary

So I opened up the hive today and low and behold I found my queen. I also found that instill have 3 fully capped queen cells. I didn't see much for eggs on in the frame I found the queen on, but I didn't look over every frame either. (I had on shorts and my legs had already gotten the message 2x

So do I try and make a late season much with the queen cells or do I just squish them? What would you all do?

Let's also give Tenbears a thumbs up on this one!!
 
#22 ·
Planning on checking on this situation tomorrow . If I still have queen cells as well as a laying queen should I make a nuc?

There is one hive I could prob steal a frame of brood from and I have a few drawn frames in the freezer that have a bunch of pollen in them.
 
#24 ·
You have drawn comb, donor brood frames (and most probably a good frame of honey), and queen cells...all the ingredients. You still have a fall flow coming. Make up a nuc and feed it. Don't waste the queen cells. If it doesn't build up adequately in time for winter, combine the hive back to the original. What do you have to lose?
 
#26 ·
We're talking about a mated queen here not a virgin queen.
A virgin queen will tear down the other cells for competition reason.
With a mated queen she rarely but sometime does sting the queen cells and the
workers will dispose of these cells. Once a mated queen got accepted and laying all
queen cells within proximity of the brood nest will be destroyed by the workers. In a
supersedure case it is a bit different.
 
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