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Author Topic: Found two queen cells...what to do?  (Read 4692 times)

Offline watercarving

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Found two queen cells...what to do?
« on: May 04, 2010, 05:39:07 pm »
Ok, I have a hive that is just booming and it has two uncapped queen cells, side by side in it. I can see the little ladies in there growing. I have one empty hive and would love to make a new one with these queens. I've never done a split before so...how do I do this?

I have another good hive I could get some bees from as well, if needed.

thanks!

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Offline msully

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2010, 07:36:47 pm »
Take the frame with the queen cells and about 2 other cells with open and capped brood and move them into the other hive.  Shake one more frame of bees into the new hive, then put a branch or something in front of the new hive to make them orient to the new location and come back in 3 weeks to see if the queen is laying.

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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2010, 07:39:01 pm »
Do I need to wait on the queen cells to be capped?
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Offline buzzbee

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2010, 07:53:56 pm »
Be sure the donor hive still has a queen.

Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2010, 08:20:32 pm »
Just saw her two weeks back and there is tons of new brood since then. I'm assuming she's around.

I really don't want them to swarm and I could use the new hive.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2010, 11:36:29 pm »
I disagree. Take the cells out and she will swarm, leaving the hive queenless.

Take her and a couple of frames of brood out and she won't swarm because she won't have enough bees. Let the hive raise a queen from the cells, as they think they have swarmed already.
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2010, 11:47:41 pm »
The hive is going great. What if I just destroy these queen cells? Will they still swarm?

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Offline Finski

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2010, 01:20:07 am »

Make a flying false swarm

Seach the queen. If there are eggs, the queen is inside. Perhaps it is allready swarmed if you do not see eggs and young larvae.

But move the hive 10 feet.

Put in old siten a new hive which has foundations.
Put in the foundation hive one food frame with pollen and one larva frame.

Put the queen into fundation hive and if you do not found it put the queen cell.

Half of bees move to the old site=foundation hive.  They start to draw foundations and soon they think that they have swarmed.

Loss of bees in the brood hive make bees to think that they do not need swarm any more and they have hard work to rear larvae and keep them warm.

This is very sure method against swarm escaping.
Don't wait with queen cells if they have milk inside. Make the false swarm at once.

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Offline Finski

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2010, 01:25:16 am »
The hive is going great. What if I just destroy these queen cells? Will they still swarm?



Great hives swarm first. Swarming is natural habit of bees to reproduce.

If you destroy cells, bees continue swarming habits. Queen stops laying and you do not get foragers for midd summer.  Hive will be soon totally out of mind. Just waiting to go.

So, make them believe that they have swarmed and they have drawn foundations. It makes them happy and they make to you honey.

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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2010, 03:41:08 am »
As mentioned, I would be careful.  There is a reason they are raising queens.  The old queen may be dead, failing or gone.
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2010, 12:18:06 pm »
I've had bees three years. The first two years were terrible honey years anyway and I didn't harvest any. I am hoping to really get some this year and was hoping to discourage swarming.

Do I just let them swarm and hope I catch them? I don't want to destroy the hive. The cells are hanging on the bottom of the comb so I assumed they were swarm cells but....I want to do what's best. If it's best to let them swarm then I will. I just hate thinking I could end up with no honey.

I have an empty hive. I guess I could put some queen attractor in it.

thanks,

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Offline iddee

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2010, 01:03:30 pm »
reread post #5. Choose frames with open brood. It will make them think they have swarmed, and will free nurse bees to become foragers and gather more nectar.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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Offline Finski

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2010, 03:18:22 pm »
Ok, I have a hive that is just booming and it has two uncapped queen cells,


That makes me wonder because a swarming hive makes about 10-15 queen cells. Or are there layed queen cell cups?  2 cells is more like  superceding.
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2010, 10:20:25 pm »
I guess they could be superceding but the queen was fine two weeks ago and the hive is absolutely bursting with brood cells.

I may just let them be and see what happens.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2010, 02:20:36 am »
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#donothing

"There are a few rules of thumb that are useful guides. One is that when you are confronted with some problem in the apiary and you do not know what to do, then do nothing. Matters are seldom made worse by doing nothing and are often made much worse by inept intervention." --The How-To-Do-It book of Beekeeping, Richard Taylor
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2010, 01:35:17 pm »
Thanks everyone for your comments.

Michael, I have always enjoyed your advice because it just seems to make sense to me. I am trying to make the bees do something but really have no idea what I'm doing so I could screw it all up.

I will do nothing and take my chances. I'm kind of interested now to see if they don't swarm. If they don't then I had a bad queen and didn't know it.
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Offline Ollie

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #16 on: May 07, 2010, 01:25:48 am »
Probably wouldn't hurt to take that spare hive and set it up a few hundred feet away in a good sunny spot with a little wee bit of honey and pollen and some drawn combs. Attractant do work. That way if it swarms you might be lucky to get it right back.
even if that new hive gets robbed by your bees, some of those bees might remember some sweet new digs when they swarm.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #17 on: May 07, 2010, 01:57:18 am »
My assumptions about swarming are seldom to do with queen cells.  It has to do with the density of bees and the time of year.  Queen cells under circumstances where I would expect them to swarm, are generally swarm cells.  Queen cells in a hive that is not crowded and it's their first year or it's not the time of year for swarming and they are not crowded.   I would assume those are supersedure cells.  So I would look at the queen cells in the context of:
Time of year.
Build up stage of the hive (first year package etc.)
Congestion of the brood nest with nectar.
Crowdedness of the hive.

And from there I would try to figure it out.
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #18 on: May 07, 2010, 06:10:31 pm »
It is pretty crowded. I've been adding frames as best I can but it's almost full (TBH). They haven't capped anything yet so I can't take it out. I can add a few more frames but they build them out almost as fast as I put them in. It's almost comical.

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Offline jclark96

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #19 on: May 07, 2010, 08:43:21 pm »
I don't have TBH but are you adding frames next to the brood nest? Or behind honey/nector?

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2010, 04:30:42 am »
If it's crowded, I might assume swarm cells then... maybe time for a split.
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Offline watercarving

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Re: Found two queen cells...what to do?
« Reply #21 on: May 11, 2010, 06:49:14 pm »
I was adding frames into the brood nest. 2 fulls then one empty.
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