Thank you @Dee for the article about Queen Cells in the hive. Just thought I would share a picture of a new queen cell in a 3 week old hive (queen cell was not present during the week 2 inspection). Also in the picture is the Queen. A week ago this frame was about half drawn with some capped brood - so the Queen and colony has made much progress on this frame and also a couple new frame being drawn. Hope there is nothing to worry about with this single Queen cell.
Where’s the queen cell? I see the queen and a lonely drone cell in the middle.
I hope it is a drone cell, but it is about 1/2 inch long (hard to tell from the picture angle). I had a few drone cells when I received the nuc, but they did not look like this one cell. I hope you’re right though!
I agree with Ed, I am having a hard time seeing that as a queen cell, even if it is long. It doesn’t have that typical “peanut shell” wall that queen cells have. What did you do with it? Left it alone?
Lovely photo of the queen with her attendants by the way - they all look very calm.
Yes, it’s drone …
Wonderful - thank you for the responses and sharing your knowledge. I did leave it alone. I’m going to default to thinking that they bees know way more about what they are doing than I do.
So, @tjsutton did that end up being a queen cell? It looks kind of like a drone cell to me. I’ve just come across something similar in my hive on my most recent inspection (still in the process of being capped) and I’m not convinced it is a queen cell. If it was a queen cell, did your hive swam?
It was a drone in a worker cell. I had a few drones throughout the Summer that were in worker cells, so the cell was drawn out more than other drones that were on the outside or bottom of the frames. Just more learning! No swarm, bees are slowing down a lot, getting ready for a Texas winter - they’ll be waiting a little while longer though.