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  • ?supercedure cell

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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10851  by Dolly
 12 May 2021, 10:28
Hi
Just been into my hive after about 9 days and am a bit concerned .
My queen who is marked no where to be seen ,however there are a few eggs
I have lots of queen cups all over the place but only one cell this looks viable ,not yet sealed.
For the moment I have put everything back the way I found it ,to have a think .
Any advice welcome
Thanks
Dolly :idea:
 #10852  by AdamD
 12 May 2021, 11:00
Queencups are not uncommon and not necessarily a problem. If they have a larva sitting in white sludge (royal jelly) should you anticipate swarming or supercedure. Lots of queen cups is unlikely to be supercedure where you would expect to see just 2 or 3 queencells being produced. Are the queen cups around the brood or in the middle of it as just started emergency queencells?
You say "some eggs;" is the colony congested (How many frames of brood, do you have supers on?) or is there a lot of empty brood area where the queen would have been expected to lay - indicating that she is slowing down? How old is the queen? (I don't expect to see the queen on every inspection).
Lots of questions to answer yours!
 #10853  by Caroline
 12 May 2021, 11:04
Hi Dolly,
You have done the right thing, taking a breath and time to think is better than panicking and making a mistake.
Questions to ask yourself:
Are the the queen cups you mention empty, i.e. no eggs? (It's not unusual to have q/cups that don't progress any further)
Is there only the one cell, did you check all the frames?
'A few eggs' means the queen has been present and laying within the last three days. Are there fewer eggs than you have been seeing on previous inspections?

If the answers to the above are 'yes', a single q/cell would suggest supercedure. The queen may already have been 'dispatched' by the workers. Or she could just have been elusive during that inspection.

It's not impossible for a colony to swarm on a supercedure cell, but I would say unlikely (especially given the poor spring we're all experiencing).

Whatever you do, do not cut out the queen cell you have.

If it was me, I would check again in a couple of days time, check if that cell sealed and if any more created. If only the one cell, leave the bees to get on with things.

As I was about to send this I see Adam has answered in the meantime, and rather more precisely than me, but I'll submit my thoughts anyway. ;)
Caroline
 #10855  by AdamD
 12 May 2021, 11:08
Hi Caroline, all comments welcome! :)
 #10856  by NigelP
 12 May 2021, 11:42
I couldn't give you a definitive answer as to what to do other than sit back for a bit is as other posters have suggested.
What I can tell is what has just happened to me. In 4 hives/nucs I had a couple of supersedure cells appear and no eggs, although I found the queen in 2 of them so she was still there but just not laying. This was coinciding with a -4's -45 and very cold day time temperatures we had up here a few weeks ago
Delighted to find in three them that queens are now laying again and supercedure cells have been torn down. I think the cold put the queens off laying and the bees thinking there was something amiss with queen drew a few cells as insurance. But as soon as she started laying again all was well. Although in one hive I still cannot find queen/eggs and there is big juicy supersedure cell which I will leave until next week. Nothing in beekeeping is 100% :D
At your next inspection If you have eggs then you most likely still have original queen. I would suggest if this is the case it might be worth removing queen cell(s). Possibly make a nuc up and leave cell to emerge and get mated as back up insurance.
 #10858  by Dolly
 12 May 2021, 13:03
Hello
Thanks for all your advice and reply.
The colony does not look congested ,the queen has room to lay and yes I have 2 supers on.I understand it's quite common to have a few queen cups dotted about the place,I just have the one ?supercedure cell hanging in the middle of a frame .Have decided to leave them alone for 2 or 3 days and then have another look.
Watch this space :lol: