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Author Topic: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???  (Read 1820 times)

Offline joker1656

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Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« on: July 13, 2009, 10:30:41 pm »
I checked a hive made from a cutout.  I was not sure that I captured the queen, and kind of confirmed that I didn't.  This hive has several queen cells made.  At least one has a potential queen inside. 

I did not see any eggs as I put the comb from the cutout in the frames.  Most of what I saw was capped brood.  There might have been some larvae, but I didn't think there was much.  So, will these queens be decent?  Is there something else I should do?  Good bees and already drawing comb.  I hope to have their genes, but have read that emergency queens can sometimes be poor?

Any thoughts?   
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Offline iddee

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2009, 12:35:58 am »
Emergency queens can be plenty good enough to get the hive going strong. The bees will know when she needs to be replaced.
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Offline Bee Happy

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2009, 01:03:31 am »
I don't have the experience to predict what will happen well, but if you want the genetics it looks like you're going the right way about it.
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Offline applebwoi

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2009, 01:51:01 am »
If you have capped queen cells, I'd guess you'll have a laying queen within 20 days so I'd wait and see how she does.  I've had some very stong queens that resulted from similar situations.
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Offline GJP

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2009, 05:44:41 pm »
I've had one hive do very well in a similar circumstance and another never got back on it's feet.  The one that didn't work out was one of my first hives last year and it was probably more my fault then the bees anyway!

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Offline joker1656

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2009, 12:35:22 pm »
Okay, thanks to all of you.....another question here.  If there is more than one cell, should I try to cut out the oldest cell.  I read in an old Gleanings something about this. 

If I remember correctly, they recommended removing the oldest cell/s to increase the chance of getting a queen from the youngest egg/larvae start possible.  So, if this is something I should do, the capped cells are older than the uncapped with the curlys in 'em, right? 

Forgive me if this is remedial stuff.  Thanks! 
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Offline GJP

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Re: Queen cells in hive from cutout...how old is too old???
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2009, 11:16:24 am »
That depends on how brave you are today!  I've learned that the bees don't read the books and are a lot better judge of what they need than I do.  I try to help as much as I can but have learned not to destroy queen cell.

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