Supercedure

As soon as I opened one hive today, I knew something was up as the bees were unusually agitated. I do 7 day inspections - nothing remarkable on
Last inspection
Saw eggs, uncapped brood but not much capped brood. Sure enough there was one big capped queen cell at the bottom of a frame. No queen seen.
However what I have never seen before was that 3 partially drawn frames had been eaten away by half. Can anyone explain this chewing?

drex said:

As soon as I opened one hive today, I knew something was up as the bees were unusually agitated. I do 7 day inspections - nothing remarkable on
Last inspection
Saw eggs, uncapped brood but not much capped brood. Sure enough there was one big capped queen cell at the bottom of a frame. No queen seen.
However what I have never seen before was that 3 partially drawn frames had been eaten away by half. Can anyone explain this chewing?

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So, you have a swarm cell and no queen. Have they swarmed?
Chewed comb might suggest robbing but I wouldn't expect that at this time of year.

Sometimes they do chew the foundation at the edges. No idea why! Regarding the queen cell......hope you left it! Sounds more like a swarm than supercedure!
E

enrico said:

Sometimes they do chew the foundation at the edges. No idea why!

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Sometimes they recycle a little bit of wax from the edges (the bottom inch) but not to the extent he's talking about. I think it happens after mid-summer when there is less forage around and there aren't as many wax producing bees in the colony. When there are crops like borage around, I don't think it happens because they're well fed and continue to draw wax.

B+. said:

So, you have a swarm cell and no queen. Have they swarmed?

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That would be my thought - but the eggs and uncapped brood mut not mych capped is intriguing me though

Me too, jbm. She obviously went off lay, then has come back online. I did not make any great efforts to search for her, so she may still have been there. Only the one queen cell, of that I am certain. There was still plenty of laying room in the hive, and none of my other colonies are showing any signs of imminent swarming. All my money is on supercedure, so just going to leave them be.

Enrico and B+, it was certainly a lot of wax that had been removed, about half the frame. All a bit odd.

jenkinsbrynmair said:

the eggs and uncapped brood mut not mych capped is intriguing me though

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I'm puzzled about that too. Were the eggs vertical, at 45 degrees or lying flat? In other words, how old are the eggs?

3 days.

drex said:

3 days.

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If you still have a large adult bee population, I'd say they were preparing to swarm. If you don't, they've probably already swarmed.

What does that swarm cell look like? The bees sometimes clear the tip of wax so the queen can emerge. If you can see the cacoon, its about to emerge.

oops. I loaded the wrong photo...not sure how to remove it

B+. said:

oops. I loaded the wrong photo...not sure how to remove it

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go to edit the post then go advanced - gives the file manging bit for you again

drex said:

Enrico and B+, it was certainly a lot of wax that had been removed, about half the frame. All a bit odd.

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It's a bit late for shrews to be in hives but are you certain that it's the bees that have removed the wax and not an intruder ? Look for nibble marks on the edge of the foundation.

drex said:

As soon as I opened one hive today, I knew something was up as the bees were unusually agitated. I do 7 day inspections - nothing remarkable on
Last inspection
Saw eggs, uncapped brood but not much capped brood. Sure enough there was one big capped queen cell at the bottom of a frame. No queen seen.
However what I have never seen before was that 3 partially drawn frames had been eaten away by half. Can anyone explain this chewing?

Click to expand...

Most of your question has been answered by others, but about the 'wax chewing'. You don't say how many frames this has happened to but, it's my understanding that bees often chew a good inch or more on some frames to take away the 'ridged' support of the frame attachment, there by allowing the comb to vibrate better when 'bee dances' are taking place. We know that bees use vibration to communicate. Half the comb though, seems rather a lot.

I had one colony that would steal foundation from starter strips to use it to build comb on other frames, so it doesn't surprise me that they'll chew it from the lower part of partially drawn frames to use elsewhere.

BeeJayBee said:

I had one colony that would steal foundation from starter strips to use it to build comb on other frames, so it doesn't surprise me that they'll chew it from the lower part of partially drawn frames to use elsewhere.

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Hi all,
Would be grateful if anyone could supply scientific studies on this.
Thanks

With the comments about swarming I thought I would have a look today. Saw the old queen. The sealed QC had gone, so I presume a virgin emerged and the remnants have been removed. 2 uncapped queen cells though. HM still laying albeit not a lot. Put her into a nuc. Will look again in a few days. Thoughts? Super ceded and now about to swarm? However there are only two cells. Of that I am certain.

Hi Drex,
Supercedure this time of the year means that you have a queen that the bees are not happy with. So, do you really want to breed from her? Take a pic of the chewed frame, someone will be able to tell what's going on.

beeno said:

Hi all,
Would be grateful if anyone could supply scientific studies on this.
Thanks

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Was there someone who tested this theory using coloured wax?