[cswin23]

Hello everyone,

My name is Chad and I am in Central Indiana and am a new beekeeper. I just brought up my first two hives from nucs two weeks ago. My hives are about an hour from where I live so I'm not able to check them but every couple of weeks. I went for my first check this past weekend and found one hive to be thriving. They had built out 9 of the 10 frames in the box so I added another box (hope that that was right!). The other hive wasn't doing as well and I found three queen cells and not nearly as many bees, and they certainly hadn't built out many frames, so I did not add the second box.

Based on this information, is there any advice on my next steps? Is there anything more I should lookout for?

 

[Michael Bush]

If the cups had eggs or larvae in them, they may mean something. If they don't have eggs or larvae in them, they man nothing whatsoever.

Assuming actual queen cells with larvae in them, the next question is what the hive is doing currently. If they are crowded and growing rapidly, then swarm cells are a good guess. If they are languishing or not growing very fast, supersedure cells are more likely. I would let a supersedure run it's course. I would split a hive trying to swarm...

 

[ruthiesbees]

Welcome Back, Michael Bush. Your words of wisdom have been missed for the past few days that you have been gone.

 

[psfred]

Keep an eye on that weak hive with the supercedure cells. You may want to take a frame of open brood from the thriving hive and give it to the weak one to keep their numbers up until the new queen is up and going.

Peter

 

[cswin23]

Thanks Michael. Based on this, I believe they are supersedure cells.