Three things stand out here to me. Booming hive, lots of drones, capped queen cell on bottom of frame. To me that is a sure sign the hive is ready to swarm.
I think you have to decide what you want to do not what you have to do. It the hive is too intimidating then split. If you want more hives then split. If you want a big honey crop than pile on the supers and be happy.Was having a dilemma as to what to do. Didn't know if I should remove the capped cell or leave it. Don't know where the queen is. Clearly I am behind on hive inspections already for this hive, from which I have already taken one split. It's booming. Any thoughts?
Why is that?in this conditions the queen they will raise is more likely to be a less prolific one than queens raised by beekeepers or superseding/swarming queens.
It's a survival thing first of all, when queen less bees will rush to raise a queen, to speed up the process they are most likely to choose older larva. The queen cells in these cases are smaller with thinner walls. The queen bees raised in these conditions tend to have a smaller number of ovaries and produce less eggs compared with queens raised by beekeeper, resulting from swarming or superseding.@ popescg:
Why is that?
Enj.
So you feel the bees are not going to make the best decision on raising a queen even if there are the resources in abundance? something about that doesn't make sense to me. I feel the bees would make their best decision when it really counts.It's a survival thing first of all, when queen less bees will rush to raise a queen, to speed up the process they are most likely to choose older larva.
Not at this time, I had several last year and I'm planning to raise more queen bees this year but after Linden tree bloom, I like Carniolans they do a good jobPopescg, do you know of anyone selling queens in Cincinnati area?