So I went into my hive and moved 2 frames of worker brood up into my second brood box this afternoon and I’m pretty sure that I found a queen cell shown in picture below…
It was about Midway up on the frame, not on bottom…
Can someone tell me what this means? It appears to be open but I could not get a good enough look inside to see if something was in it…
As others have said on here I would like a mentor, and or join a bee club but things are changing so quickly in my new Hive that this is the only resource that I can use to get good information that is quick for the time being…
Thanks Matt
Thanks Matt
It looks to be a practice cup (or play cup), there are various names for it. Nothing to be concerned about but its great that you are keeping a close eye on your brood, most swarm (queen) cells will be built along or near the bottom of the frames.
It is not unusual for colonies to make a queen cell that is never put to use, I call them a ‘pretend queen cell’ and often wonder if it is just to show you that they know how to make them. I actually leave them as if they are destroyed they will make another!!!
If you get yourself a mentor or join a local bee group you will at least have local information and advice to work from and so save a lot of your time wondering what you are seeing, ok…
When I started off again with bee keeping in a totally different climate I accepted that I had to forget a lot of what applied to me in a much colder climate. The best thing I did was to meet up with a local, @JeffH who is a wealth of information. Even just chatting with him face to face brought back much that I had forgotten and he brought me up to speed on local ways of doing things.
Jeff and I don’t always see eye to eye but at least we listen to each’s ideas, that is what being mates is about.
Cheers
