Do Workers Repair Swarm Cells

639 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Saltybee, Apr 29, 2019

ericweller

Discussion Starter · Apr 29, 2019

Hello,
I was inspecting one of my hives and the bees had attached the bottom of the swarm cells to the top of the frames of the bottom box. As a result, when I was lifting the frames in the top box, I was ripping off the bottom of the swarm cells.
Will the bees repair the cells or will they tear them down? The queen larvae looked fine in the cells. None were big enough to occupy the entire cell. If they tear them down, this hive will be hopelessly queenless with no ability to start new ones.
Thanks!

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fieldsofnaturalhoney

· #2 · Apr 29, 2019

I Do Not know for sure, but my "bee instinct"

, says probably not. In addition, you would have to put the frame back in the "exact" position to close the cells you opened.

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Michael Bush

· #3 · Apr 29, 2019

It probably depends on how much damage, especially to the larvae. Usually they just remove the larvae and tear down the cell. Minor damage to the cell and no damage to the larvae, might get repaired, but I wouldn't count on it since you really can't tell if the larvae is damaged.

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Saltybee

· #4 · Apr 29, 2019

I've made small tears and they have been fine. A damaged queen, probably not.
They will definitely repair uncapped worker cells.

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