New beekeeper 4th inspection new jersey

Hi all

Today i did 4th inspection of my 8 frame flow hive. The 3rd week was not posted because it was fairly unchanged from week 2 with the exception of more capped brood. Today i did not have my usual photographer handy so pics are not that great. It has been hot here in NJ this week and i think flow is still good since there is a lot of blooms including tons of clover.

The hive has plenty of bees and very docile and tolerant of me. I saw the queen again. There are still about 3 frames not yet built out on the ends but what concerns me is that i found a queen cell today. I removed it along with small pieces of burcomb. I did not get good enough photos to see if there were fresh eggs

Why would there be a queen cell? Is this normal? Do they want to swarm? Even though there are 3 empty frames? Should i be concerned? Is it possible all the previous capped brood has already hatched and queen is re laying in those cells?

Any answers are as always greatly appreciated. Here are some photos

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Fyi. In the first photo about 3 oclock you can see our queen :slight_smile:

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Queen cell, or queen cup? Anything in it? White jelly or a larva? Was it a sealed, elongated “peanut” or a short, open acorn cup type thing? Nurse bees make queen cups all the time when they are bored. Doesn’t mean anything. Destroying it won’t help. Even if it is a queen cell, destroying it won’t remove the swarming urge, although that used to be the method many decades ago. If you can take a photo before destroying next time, we can give you a better opinion. :blush:

Take a look at pages 12, 13, 14 and onwards in this document. It might help you alleviate some of your anxiety:
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wbka-booklet-english-PDF.pdf

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Thanks a bunch Dawn for your sage advice. It was more like a cup and more int the center of the frame. It did have a larvae in it. So if there is still plenty of room in the hive would they want to swarm? I never heard about these “cups” but i will read what you sent. Thanks a bunch.

Don

Oh and it was not sealed it was more like an open cup

They may not want to swarm, but with a nucleus or a package, they sometimes want to supersede the queen for reasons known only to themselves. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Yes this was a 3lb package installed on may 19 into new 8 frame flow hive brood box with black waxed foundation. There are at least 3 empty frames

Hi Don, I’m also located in NJ.

Check out this site: https://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov

You can find a list of Honey Bee Forage Species in our area.

(Region 12 for the State of NJ).

I hope this helps.

Dan

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