Empty Queen cup on side of one of my brood frames

Hi, should I be concerned about an empty queen cup on the side of one of my brood frames? Finally located my queen today (green Dot), exciting and she seems healthy and moving around the hive well. I attach some pics to give you something to see. I am located in Canberra and it is the start of Autumn. There also appears to be lots of bees in the brood box, I haven’t put on another brood box/honey super because 1) I didn’t think I should do this going into the cold part of the year and 2) It has been only 2.5 months since I put a nuc into the hive. Any advice much appreciated.

Hi @KSJ,

Mots likely, not. Personally, I would had a white marker handy, in case green dot disappears from the queen :slight_smile:

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Empty queen cups like the one in your photo are fairly common & nothing to worry about. As spring arises, that’s when you’ll see the bees extend them down with lighter colored new wax. That’s the time to be more concerned, that’s when I start looking inside them as I start doing splits.

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These are called ‘play cups’ and only when there is an egg or larva inside in a pool of jelly, or capped, is when you should take steps to manage the inevitable swarm.

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@Bianca @JeffH @ABB thanks all for you answers, I really appreciate it :slightly_smiling_face:

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