Try saying that ten times, fast...
I have a colony that looked great on my inspection today. Didn't see the 1 year old queen but good number of eggs and brood in nice patterns. I found a lone queen cell high on a frame and about to be capped. Nothing that I could see would indicate a need to supercede the queen. Do the workers sometimes get full of themselves and make a new queen just because they can or do they know something that I just would not know? Is it strange for them to supercede with just one cell? I though they would make several for supercedure or swarm prep. There are plenty of eggs if they wanted to make more...
What would you do, let them supercede or remove the cell? I have a queenless nuc colony that I could give the queen cell to. If you think that's an alright idea (I would move the whole frame to the nuc) when would you do it, move now while open or wait until completely capped?
Another option would be to let the supercedure happen but find the "old" queen and introduce her to the nuc before her workers do away with her.
Thoughts?
I have a colony that looked great on my inspection today. Didn't see the 1 year old queen but good number of eggs and brood in nice patterns. I found a lone queen cell high on a frame and about to be capped. Nothing that I could see would indicate a need to supercede the queen. Do the workers sometimes get full of themselves and make a new queen just because they can or do they know something that I just would not know? Is it strange for them to supercede with just one cell? I though they would make several for supercedure or swarm prep. There are plenty of eggs if they wanted to make more...
What would you do, let them supercede or remove the cell? I have a queenless nuc colony that I could give the queen cell to. If you think that's an alright idea (I would move the whole frame to the nuc) when would you do it, move now while open or wait until completely capped?
Another option would be to let the supercedure happen but find the "old" queen and introduce her to the nuc before her workers do away with her.
Thoughts?