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British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Found Queen Cells - What Next?

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #3594  by NigelP
 15 Jun 2019, 12:03
If you are sure you ko them all then later....see what their plans are>

Sometimes they just stop.....
 #3595  by Patrick
 15 Jun 2019, 12:50
Agree with others - we have all done it Jazz. Partly because the “bible” of my day Hooper’s said it’s what he did. The theory is some then give up the idea of swarming ( and how tantalising a proposal is that...?..).

My experience was that if conditions were favourable to swarm they just tried again but became more grumpy and developed less optimal cells and were gone by the time I looked next time. It also prolonged the uncertainty and made it a multi move game for me which I didn’t need. Hence clipping queens to reduce risk of losing workers (the real priority) and just getting on with it when I saw cells the first time.

It is quite possible that they are raising supercedure cells. The problem is that, unless you can “speak bee” , in the swarming season that is a value judgement by the beekeeper and is another tantalising “do nothing” option which in a multi hive position is a risk maybe worth taking - loftily tell everyone afterwards if it works demonstrating your Uber skills and keep Schtumm if it doesn’t 😉!

In a single hive position I would prefer to belt and braces manage the process to make sure of a good outcome whatever the bees initial plans. “The bees know best” is all well and good, but they don’t always let you know best for what or whom.
 #3597  by Japey Edge
 15 Jun 2019, 18:13
Cheers Nigel & Patrick :-)

Hopefully they'll recover from that setback and make the queen of the century.

If I see queen cells on next inspection it will be time to move the queen to the nuc :geek:

Will keep you posted and update you with the next daft mistake I make :shock:
 #3598  by Adam Bee
 15 Jun 2019, 18:26
All this talk makes me want to invest in a spare OMF, crown board and roof! My only consolation and insurance is that my nuc came in a sturdy nuc box. I’d need to make a roof for it, but I have it as back up.

Jazz, as much as you may feel in either the frying pan or fire, I’m envious that you’re experiencing something exciting! And learning something new! I’m just sitting here watching my bees come and go (or hide from the rain...).
 #3601  by Japey Edge
 15 Jun 2019, 23:21
Adam I know what you mean, but when your time comes you'll wish you were just watching your bees come and go!
Nervy stuff this like
 #3690  by Japey Edge
 21 Jun 2019, 09:47
This message may look familiar to Nigel. I tried to PM him but it's stuck in the outbox...

Unfortunately the delayed visit from the gentleman at my association came on Wednesday, when I had planned to heed advice in this thread. I've been hesitant about posting because what happened was contrary to advice here. However I am concerned as he hasn't done what I had planned and he went another route. As someone with weeks of experience I felt I couldn't confidently tell this guy of 20+ years what I was doing and why.

We opened the hive that I previously found 2 queen cells on. I saw three. So straight away I wanted to follow advice on my thread - take frame with queen and 3 others to put in my 6 frame Maisies nuc.
He said no, carved out the queen cells and took them to put in his incubator and told me to keep an eye on the hive in 5 days (when thunderstorms are due might I add).

I told him everything about the hive and still he wanted to take QCs down a second time. I'm not pitting experienced beekeepers against each other and I'll not be going backwards and forwards between forums and him - it's just that his visit was delayed a couple times and when he was finally available it so happened to fall within this crazy period.

So if you're still happy to advise - should I just go out there today when the weather is best and take the frame with the queen and 2/3 others and stick in my nuc? Then let the hive sort itself out?

In other news, they have built up a lot and started drawing comb on the super. I need the QE on though as I forgot to do that, again :(
 #3692  by NigelP
 21 Jun 2019, 12:45
Sorry Jazz, just found your message in in box...
I'll PM you an email address which will work much better.
Alas you find yourself in a common position for someone just starting to keep bees. Conflicting advice.
The problem is you cannot divide the advice it's one or the other. But the usual pathway is to follow a bit of both in an attempt to please all parties and end up buggering everything up.

There is no rush...he has got cells in incubator so new queens (virgins) will be available shortly which could be put into nucs...
IF they continue to raise queen cells they are determined to swarm....so then perhaps his advice is not looking too goods as you need to deal with the "swarm fever". In which case then (after next inspection, depending on what you find) I would go for queen in nuc method of swarm control. If queen is still laying then their may be other aspects at work here...and if no more queen cells job's a good 'un.

Oh...get that queen excluder on and make sure queen is "downstairs". Don't worry if they are not using super, they will use it when THEY are ready to..... not when YOU want them to. It's good to give extra space in summer when temp control of internal hive is not so important.
 #3693  by Patrick
 21 Jun 2019, 16:59
Hi Jazz, never sweat with going down a different route to that discussed here. We are only ever going to give options based on what info is available and as Nigel says, there can be several “right options” but mixing up the best bits doesn’t always work.

If you have an experienced beekeeper helping you based on what they can see in front of them - great. Hopefully, they are following a line of approach familiar to them. The only thing I would add is make it clear what is your desired outcome - the risk is they just do what they normally do to achieve “their” desired outcome.
 #3694  by NigelP
 21 Jun 2019, 23:53
As Patrick rightly says...stay, with one advice. But do ask what they are trying to achieve and how, what they are doing,will achieve this.