Hi,
I started my hive at the beginning of June this year. Everything has been going really well and the bees have filled three frames with honey already.
I checked them last weekend and they seemed overly quiet and the queen was very active. There were a few queen cups and an uncapped queen cell which I removed.
This weekend the queen appears to have disappeared and the bees seemed quite agitated. There are 6 capped queen cells in the hive, a couple of which I removed yesterday.
My question is this - given where we are in the season - should I let them create their own queen or should I introduce a new queen?
If I go for the new queen option - should I remove all of the queen cells and what should I do if one of them hatches in the meantime?
Any advice would be much appreciated!!
I started my hive at the beginning of June this year. Everything has been going really well and the bees have filled three frames with honey already.
I checked them last weekend and they seemed overly quiet and the queen was very active. There were a few queen cups and an uncapped queen cell which I removed.
This weekend the queen appears to have disappeared and the bees seemed quite agitated. There are 6 capped queen cells in the hive, a couple of which I removed yesterday.
My question is this - given where we are in the season - should I let them create their own queen or should I introduce a new queen?
If I go for the new queen option - should I remove all of the queen cells and what should I do if one of them hatches in the meantime?
Any advice would be much appreciated!!