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Author Topic: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?  (Read 1567 times)

Offline tomiferris

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Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« on: August 26, 2013, 12:56:06 am »
I live in Northern CA - Sonoma County.  I inspected one of my hives about a week ago and noticed capped brood, open larvae, and eggs.  But I also noticed an unopened queen cup on the bottom of one of the frames I looked at (definitely a queen cup and not drone). The brood area is 4 mediums - this hive has been very strong in the last couple of years - I only inspected the top box of the brood area.  When I spotted the queen cup, I didn't want to chance ruining any others.  My question - why would they be raising a new queen when the old one seems to be doing her job? Isn't it late in the year to be doing that?

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2013, 08:59:13 am »
Assuming, by "cup" you mean there is no larvae in it, then it means absolutely nothing.
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Offline tomiferris

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Re: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2013, 01:52:45 pm »
Sorry, actually what I meant is a capped queen cell. 

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2013, 02:48:04 pm »
Well, a capped queen cell is a horse of a different color...

The thing to try to narrow down is if they are swarming or superseding.  I would put that in the context of whether the hive is growing or shrinking and how many cells they made.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm#swarmcellsonbottom
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2013, 11:29:28 pm »
Supercedure is usually done with less than 6 queen cells and often only one or two.  Also of note is that if you find capped queen cells that indicate a supercedure is underway the chances that the queen has already been offed runs about 80%.  I've had hives off the queen as soon as there were dedicated queen cells, open, newly hatched larva.

Removing a supercedure cell is a recipe for disaster, or at least a queenless hive.
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Offline 10framer

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Re: Larvae and eggs - also queencups - why?
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2013, 02:44:38 pm »
i have a hive that kept a viable queen cell or two around all season.  i think these bees are russian hybrids.  they finally succeeded in replacing the queen back in late july.

 

anything