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  • Queen cell disappeared in split hive

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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11223  by RDGBEES
 16 Jun 2021, 12:52
Hey everyone,

Last week I split my hive. I left one queen cell in the old hive and marked the frame which the cell was on.

During my inspection today I pulled out the frame which was supposed to have the queen cell on and it was nowhere to be seen.

I checked the other frames and there were no queen cells in the position I know I left it so I know I didn't make a mistake marking the frame.

Is It possible the cell was completely destroyed by the bees? If so for what reason and is it common?

Thanks in advance
 #11225  by Alfred
 16 Jun 2021, 13:59
They will often tear down cells that they deem unneccessary which could mean the prescence of queen pheromones.
Or they're just being assholes after messaging with my lot.
 #11227  by Patrick
 16 Jun 2021, 14:21
Hi RDG

At the risk of asking a smart arse question, do you know how old the cell was? If it was a sealed QC a week ago, then she could well have emerged and be wandering around prior to mating. Some bees tidy up more promptly than others.

Spotting new virgins is quite next level stuff - they look much more like workers and the abdomen may look more triangular than extended.

Conversely they could have responded to the sudden reduction in bees by tearing down the cell and making themselves queenless. Only way to be relatively sure is to put in a test frame from another hive with a patch of eggs on it and see if they now pull out any emergency cells.

If making up splits I often wrap the cell in foil leaving the cell tip as an open tube (workers tear down cells from the side, not the end) just so I know they can’t do anything as irrational. If I can’t get foil round in situ I just cut it out and pop back in between slightly ajar top bars. I know most folk wouldn’t bother and it would usually be fine however.
 #11230  by RDGBEES
 16 Jun 2021, 15:48
Hi Patrick,

The queen cell wasn't sealed last week. I made sure I could see a decent amount of royal jelly and a nice plump larvae inside.

Perhaps it was damaged accidently so they tore it down and started again... there were about 6 or 7 additional queen cells (including emergency ones).

I'm hoping that will be it for splitting this year but I will bear in mind wrapping the cells in foil for next year.

I've been through the queen cells again and left just one so I'm hoping for better results next week 🙏

Patrick wrote:Hi RDG

At the risk of asking a smart arse question, do you know how old the cell was? If it was a sealed QC a week ago, then she could well have emerged and be wandering around prior to mating. Some bees tidy up more promptly than others.

Spotting new virgins is quite next level stuff - they look much more like workers and the abdomen may look more triangular than extended.

Conversely they could have responded to the sudden reduction in bees by tearing down the cell and making themselves queenless. Only way to be relatively sure is to put in a test frame from another hive with a patch of eggs on it and see if they now pull out any emergency cells.

If making up splits I often wrap the cell in foil leaving the cell tip as an open tube (workers tear down cells from the side, not the end) just so I know they can’t do anything as irrational. If I can’t get foil round in situ I just cut it out and pop back in between slightly ajar top bars. I know most folk wouldn’t bother and it would usually be fine however.