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Author Topic: They're making a QUEEN CELL!  (Read 7502 times)

Offline tillie

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They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« on: May 21, 2007, 11:05:22 am »
I opened the queenless swarm hive today and was thrilled to find that they are working on making a queen  8-)  I wasn't 100% sure there were eggs in the frames I gave them but there must have been.  Here it is - there are two open queen cups to one side - should I worry about that?  and a mother of a queen cell in the lower left center of the picture.  I'm not worried about the location of the queen cell because that's where the eggs were.  Sorry the picture isn't more centered but I was too excited to take a good picture!



I moved the whole little colony into a nuc and I guess even though there is a flow going on, I'll feed this hive since it is so weak and just starting.



They look kind of pitiful next to my Goliath of a hive, but this is a persistent David.

Linda T cheerful in Atlanta
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Offline Cindi

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2007, 11:13:16 am »
Linda, right on!!!!  Yes, feed the nuc, they won't have enough foragers to get out to get enough food.  Watch out for robber bees.  Sometimes nucs are not strong enough to defend their hives really well.  Don't worry about the queen cells, the bees will figure it out.  By the way, you take nice pictures.  I love them!!!!!

When I made the nuc from my wintered colony I put a robber frame infront of it.  I still cannot post pictures (eeks!!!!), but this is what I had on hand.  My husband had made a wooden frame with mosquito netting in it for one of our basement windows.  When I lean it up against the front of the hive it make a perfect robber prevention.  The bees inside can get out easily by going out the sides, but the robbers can't get in (unless they figure to go around the sides) because the screen blocks them.  So, hopefully it will help to prevent robbing.  I also have an entrance reducer on the nuc so they don't have as much of an entrance area to defend. 

Hope things all go well for you, great life, great luck.  Cindi
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Offline DayValleyDahlias

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2007, 12:01:21 pm »
Wow, Linda, that is great news...nature rocks...Congrats on the diligent work~*~ Thanks so much for sharing your adventures.
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Offline Mici

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2007, 01:48:20 pm »
Quote from: tillie on May 21, 2007, 11:05:22 am
Here it is - there are two open queen cups to one side - should I worry about that?  and a mother of a queen cell in the lower left center of the picture. 

They look kind of pitiful next to my Goliath of a hive, but this is a persistent David.


just for my better understanding, the HIVE is 1 deep, 2 medium and 3 shallows, right?

i don't understand the queen thing? with "mother of the queen cells" you're aiming at-the closed, the biggest right? i was looking for a queen but couldn't find her, plus it seemed odd.
i think you need not to worry about queen cups-as long as they're cups, one of my hives has and i swear! at least 50 queen cups! just a sing of a succesful hive.
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Offline ChickenWing

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2007, 03:19:36 pm »
Tillie had a swarm land on her empty hive bodies, and the queen died.  She was hopeing for a new queen to be made.  Congrats!   
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Offline tillie

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2007, 03:53:26 pm »
These girls can stay in the nuc for a while as they build up.  I know it will be probably 5 more days before the queen hatches and she still has to make a successful mating flight.  Should I feed in more capped brood from one of my other hives to speed the build-up?

Linda T in Atlanta
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Offline annette

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2007, 05:41:25 pm »
How exciting, and I just love that big, fat, juicy queen cell on the bottom left. That is how my queen cell looked when I placed it into my split and it produced one unbelievable laying queen.

Good luck and let us know how things progress.

Annette
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Offline bhough

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2007, 05:56:31 pm »
Dear Linda,

Thanks for the pictures and education!

It looks as though you are keeping your hives on your back deck.  I concluded that I couldn't safely keep my hive in my backyard, even though we have alot of room, because of our two small girls.  Do you have any trouble with bees getting in the house or bothering you on your deck?

Thanks again!
Bruce
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Offline bhough

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2007, 05:57:08 pm »
Tillie,

I wrote Linda, but meant Tillie.  Sorry.

Bruce
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Offline nepenthes

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2007, 07:01:22 pm »
Their is a modify button you should be able to click instead of double posting. Just so you know!!  :-D
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Offline tillie

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2007, 10:44:11 pm »
My bees are on my deck and I love having them there.  I do have to be aware of bees in the house - they come in on the dogs' fur at night and even during the day.  My very small dogs are black with long fur and I think the bees think they are bears in miniature.  I find at least one bee/day in the house and have perfected the method of covering them with a glass, sliding a postcard under the glass and releasing them back outdoors.

Still I find 10 - 20 dead bees a week in the house.  The bees in the house never sting, however, they are just desperate to get back to the hive or to commit suicide on the ceiling lights.

That said, I love having them on the deck because I learn much more about them than if I had to go somewhere to see my hives.  My life is very busy and I would never see my bees.  This way I can run out and add a super in a few minutes before heading off to work.  It's the best.  My favorite thing is to eat meals on the sunporch and watch the bees  ;)

Linda T (Tillie) in Atlanta
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Offline Understudy

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2007, 10:48:23 pm »
Excuse me ma'am but there are a lot of supers on that other hive. Did the bees form a HOA?

:)

Congrads on the queen cell.

Sincerely,
Brendhan
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2007, 11:01:04 pm »
Queens are too important to only make one.  They always make several.  Sometimes dozens.
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Offline kgbenson

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #13 on: May 22, 2007, 10:13:17 am »
Quote from: tillie on May 21, 2007, 03:53:26 pm
Should I feed in more capped brood from one of my other hives to speed the build-up?

If you can do it without jarring the queen cells, it would help - and as they hatch out there will be nice new polished cells for her to lay in.

Keith
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Offline Cindi

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2007, 10:50:01 am »
Mici, I think that if you have about 50 queen cups, I would watch out, it seems to me that they have the swarm mind set going on!!!!  That sounds like swarm preparations to me. Take care.  Have a great day.  Cindi
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #15 on: May 22, 2007, 04:26:11 pm »
When a hive goes queenless with no eggs and a frame of brood of various ages are placed in the hive the bees will select a number of them to develop into queens.  They always develop more queen cells than they need, then as they develop they begin to cull those they find unacceptable, destroying the cell and eating or removing the larvae or pupae. 
I've seen hives with up to 30 queen cells cull them down to half a dozen and then hold the remaining queens in the cell by constantly recapping it until they decide on the final one, two, or 3.  At that point they may let the reamining queens hatch and fight it out if the bees consider them equal. 
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Offline tillie

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #16 on: May 22, 2007, 11:14:36 pm »
My understanding is that what keeps the bees in the hive is the draw of the queen pheromone. 

If there's no queen, what keeps them drawn to the hive?  I've moved this one gradually about six feet and turned it completely 180 degrees and yet it is growing with bees every day.  What keeps them finding their own hive without the queen pheromone?

Linda T confused in Atlanta
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Offline doak

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #17 on: May 22, 2007, 11:28:00 pm »
They orient to the hive. The Queen pheromone stimulates the bees, more than it leads them to the hive.
That is why you hear the different noise, and action with a queenless colony compared to one that is queenright.
doak
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Offline tillie

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #18 on: May 23, 2007, 12:07:05 am »
This hive is silent - I thought it was supposed to roar as a queenless hive....but they are busily working.  I put the frame of eggs in on the 12th.  Shouldn't the queen hatch out in the next day or so?

Linda T in Atlanta
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Offline Understudy

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Re: They're making a QUEEN CELL!
« Reply #19 on: May 23, 2007, 01:54:54 am »
Queen Cell
Egg                      3 days
Larva                   4 days
Sealed Cell
Larva/Pri-Pupa       2 days
Pupa                    6 days
Egg to emergance  16 days.

Sincerley,
Brendhan
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