[urbanoutlaw]

I found what I believe are multiple queen cups in a hive, two of which are possibly occupied - I definitely need glasses. There is room in the hive, and I just added two drawn supers. Although the hive has not backfilled the brood nest and is actively building foundation, should I interpret this as swarm preparation? If so, I remove the supers and split out the frames with occupied queen cups, correct? Anything I can do to get a honey crop or am I just -

:ws:


For the record, any manipulations requiring that I find the queen are out. Yes, I am a lousy beekeeper, I couldn't find her if my life depended on it!!

 

[JRG13]

Could be supercedure, either way I'd pull the queen for a split.

 

[Michael Bush]

If they are not occupied they mean nothing. I would investigate further...

 

[urbanoutlaw]

I'm not sure if the cups are occupied because I need new glasses. I thought there was larva, but am not sure. I tried to upload pictures, but couldn't get it to work, even with the basic uploader tool.

For argument's sake, say the cups weren't occupied, what would you investigate further?

 

[PA Pete]

It's whether or not the Q cups are occupied that you want to investigate. If occupied, split. If not occupied, relax.

I found a bunch of Q cups during my inspections this week. None were occupied, so for now I'm not at all concerned about swarming.

Good luck!

-Pete

 

[JRG13]

You don't need to see anything as small as an egg, the presence of a large amount of royal jelly in the bottom will say it all.

 

[Michael Bush]

>For argument's sake, say the cups weren't occupied, what would you investigate further?

No. It means nothing that they have cups.