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Author Topic: New Queen ... did they fight it out?  (Read 2910 times)

Offline rawfind

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New Queen ... did they fight it out?
« on: February 24, 2012, 04:13:06 pm »
Hi Fellow beekeepers,
                             got a question to throw out there,
I have a hive at one of my sites and the girls had removed some honey from a full frame of honey and the queen has laid eggs, there
was some capped larvae in there  and some exposed grubs, i placed an excluder between  the two boxes after smoking the bees down
into the bottom box. I just left it for 3 weeks before i checked itagain  and i got the result i wanted, no brood or eggs in the top box, but i did find a queen cell that had been chewed open so it looks like they turned one of those grubs into a queen? im assuming as a virgin shes able to pass through the excluder and make her way out to mate?
Do you guys rekon she had aa showdown with the old queen and killed her?  the hive was a touch on the agressive it seems to be a little less that way now. still too early for a complete change to take place but a new queen can make some change correct? re Neil     

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: New Queen ... did they fight it out?
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2012, 07:15:57 am »
Hey rawfind

most likely the other (old) queen is dead or has left with a small swarm.

As long as you can see lava and eggs in the cells, don't be too phased by this. my bees did the exact same thing this year build queen cells (with viable queens) in the third honey box. very weird but i pulled them when i saw them and made new hives from them.

my thoughts are that they may have just dragged a few eggs up into the top boxes or perhaps their was a few eggs at the right age in one of the top frames....

Offline rawfind

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Re: New Queen ... did they fight it out?
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2012, 06:59:17 pm »
Hey rawfind

most likely the other (old) queen is dead or has left with a small swarm.

As long as you can see lava and eggs in the cells, don't be too phased by this. my bees did the exact same thing this year build queen cells (with viable queens) in the third honey box. very weird but i pulled them when i saw them and made new hives from them.

my thoughts are that they may have just dragged a few eggs up into the top boxes or perhaps their was a few eggs at the right age in one of the top frames....

There still seems to be plenty of bees there.  quite often a guessing game this bee caper!

 

anything