When I opened it yesterday… I cut out two swarm cells… but they could just be emergency queen cells…? I don’t know the difference yet…?
This is a good resource:
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/There-Are-Queen-Cells-In-My-Hive-WBKA-WAG.pdf
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@RBK thank you for that link… it was a really good read!! I think my queen cells might be supersedure cells… not swarm cells… so maybe don’t need to stress as much as I have been lol
If they are supersedure cells when the bees make more then you can leave them alone and get a new queen. How old is the present one?
It’s just a guess that they are supersedure cells…? Or do they just sometimes make them cells but don’t fill them, unless they lose the queen and they need to make a new one in an emergency…?
I’ve only had them since October and the queen as far as I can tell is very strong… pretty much every single cell is full with either brood honey or pollen and the brood pattern is really good with hardly any cells missed at all.
If they were empty then maybe they were play cups and not queen cells at all. Bees make cups all the time. Play cups can be dotted about all over the place. Swarm cells are usually hidden by the side bars or hanging from the bottom bars. Emergency cells are made by extending a worker cell and are usually on the face of the comb there are often lots of them
Hey guys… did an inspection today… these are the queen cells that they keep making… arethey just cups, supersedure cells or swarm cells…?
Also, good news! The rest of the hive is doing great!! I’m hopefully going to extract a flow frame this week!! Unless I should keep it in there for the bees…?
And great news!! They are working on the new comb, after I checkerboarded them last week!!!
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They are play cups not queen cells. The bees make them all the time and are nothing to worry about unless you see a larva floating in royal jelly inside. No need to remove them
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G’day Paul, I always look inside new queen cups for eggs or larvae or even larval food. In my climate, I would take all of that honey. I know there’s always more coming in. How much honey you leave the bees is up to your judgement of future honey flow. Remember there will always be some honey in the brood box plus what stays behind in the frames after harvest.
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