[BeeSWMBO]

I did an inspection yesterday and spotted 2 queen cups. One was empty, the other had a lot of attendance around it. We could not see into it, but I got the impression there was something in it. My hive has 4 medium supers on it, 2 with brood, 1 with honey and a second honey super put on yesterday with queen excluder. I am afraid my girls are feeling cramped. I am a first year beek and really do not want to lose my bees!! I also have heard I should remove the cup but also have heard not to incase there is a problem with my queen and they are requeening? Need advise please!!!!:s We do have a have a flow going right now also.

 

[Deadeye351]

Likely best to just leave them Bee.. Your old queen may have already left.

 

[nathan]

wow, you live in my second hometown!
questions-how full is your first honey super? are you using foundation? how full are your brood supers?
sounds like your hive is healthy, it's doubtful they'll abscond, so you probably won't lose your bees, worst that could happen is they'll swarm. Things can change quickly with bees, if you have added room in time they might just tear down the cups, or not fill them. With a full honey super, the old queen is not likely to move up. I don't like to use excluders if I don't have to, although I do keep some around.

 

[BeeSWMBO]

Thanks oldtimer, I will check. If there is or is not larve in the cup, should I remove it?

 

[Lauren]

Total newbeek here, so no advice. But didn't I read that if the queen cups were hanging off of the bottom it was swarm, and if it was high up on the frame it was replacement??? :s

Good Luck!!!

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Lauren,

Queen "cups" can be anywhere on the comb, but if they don't have eggs or larva in them they are not queen cells, and have no more significance than pieces of burr comb.

 

[BeeSWMBO]

Thank you all for the feedback!!! Nathan, I just looked at pictures taken while inspecting. To answer your questions, The honey super that was on there is pretty full of uncapped honey or necter. That is why I added a second, we did a short inspection a few days ago and saw that they needed more storage space. Second question, yes I am using foundation. In all but the super added yesterday they all have wax foundation on them. Yesterdays addition has plasticell. Third question, The brood super look like they are full to, but I didnt think to full, the second from the bottom has brood through out. I dont think we saw any eggs, but we were not looking real close. In the pictures I can see larve and it looks good I believe. It seems uniform like she is laying in good form, drone on the bottom edges, capped and larve in the middle. I will do another inspecion to get more info asap. I will leave feedback. Thanks so much!!!

 

[devdog108]

Man, you'd hate to see mine. On a couple of jives I can show you 4 or 5 on a frame. I just watch them. If bees are in the way, i gently blow on their hiney's and they backout so I can see. Even if there is an egg in the cell, it doesn tmean they wont tear it down. Seen them do it a lot!

 

[victory1504]

I agree devdog. Sometimes they will put royal jelly or even an egg in them. I have heard them called "play cells" because it doesn't mean they are serious about swarming. It bears close watching ! A large larva or a capped cell is another matter entirely.
A good queen can cover more than 2 mediums. I like to use 3 as a brood nest.
Right now I would pull the queen excluder ( honey excluder ) and put the super of honey on top. The super of foundation next. It will act as a queen excluder. It is unlikely that she will cross over foundation to lay in the honey above.
They never use these "play cells" for supersedure or emergency queen rearing.

 

[victory1504]

Yes Lauren, they are usually in the corners along the bottom. Supersedure cells are usually in the middle of the brood pattern. They are selected as a queen by the bees as an afterthought because of some condition in the hive.
I don't see any reason to tear down empty queen cells. They keep several around during summer. They can build them back faster than you can tear them down.