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
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.
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.