Advice please on Emergency Queening

[GaryB]

Scenario:

Queen arrived with swarm in June 2016, unmarked, therefore unknown age.

Inspected 19th April late in day, very crowded on brood and half and 4 unsealed QC's and two sealed QC's. Lots of sealed brood in BB, very little laying space. Eggs and BIAS. Saw Queen who is marked, added BB below with foundation to give space.

20th April went back in, tore down all QC's, could not find Queen, suspect she may have been lost on previous inspection, or was duffed in.

28th April went back in. Two good looking sealed QC's, and 2 small unimpressive sealed QC's, all located mid frame. No eggs or larvae, confirming they had gone queenless. No obvious swarm cells.

I suspect the were trying to supersede her anyway, and will wait emergence of the QC's.

My main question is, should I take down the inferior QC's to eliminate swarming, or because they are queenless, will the first emerged queen re-queen the hive without the urge to swarm. It's a strong colony, as the previous queen was quite prolific.

 

[JWF]

On the assumption that they were making swarm preparations rather than superseding (due to congested BB and time of year) I would knock down all but one of the QCs, or if they're on different frames, keep the best two but pop one into a nuc with a couple of frames of emerging brood, shaking bees of a couple of other frames into the nuc too.

That way, you have some insurance should one of the QCs be duff, or fail to get mated.

If you leave 2 QCs you run the risk of losing half your bees.

Have they drawn out the new BB yet?

 

[Anduril]

On the assumption that they were making swarm preparations rather than superseding (due to congested BB and time of year) I would knock down all but one of the QCs, or if they're on different frames, keep the best two but pop one into a nuc with a couple of frames of emerging brood, shaking bees of a couple of other frames into the nuc too.

That way, you have some insurance should one of the QCs be duff, or fail to get mated.

If you leave 2 QCs you run the risk of losing half your bees.

Have they drawn out the new BB yet?

As above. But if all the QCs are on one frame, cut out half the comb and using a spare frame without foundation, if you have one, tie it into the empty frame. Use it to make a spare nuc with a few brood frames and stores. If you have the space you can expand to 2 hives . Try not to damage the QCs when doing this. If you only want the one hive you can combine the nuc with the hive at a later date.

 

[drex]

Easier to cut out the queen cell, leaving a small margin, so you do not cut into the cell itself. With you thumb or hive tool make a depression on the frame you intend to put the queen cell onto and press the margin of the cell into the depression.
They may have swarmed on 19th/20th.
With sealed qc's adding space is not going to do anything to prevent swarming. Also a good idea to think it through before ever knocking down queen cells.

 

[GaryB]

Easier to cut out the queen cell, leaving a small margin, so you do not cut into the cell itself. With you thumb or hive tool make a depression on the frame you intend to put the queen cell onto and press the margin of the cell into the depression.
They may have swarmed on 19th/20th.
With sealed qc's adding space is not going to do anything to prevent swarming. Also a good idea to think it through before ever knocking down queen cells.

Thanks guys for the advice. As the queen was definately still in the hive on 19th April with sealed QC's, had thought it was maybe supercedure, although thinking about it the weather was not terrific over those few days, and they could have been waiting for better temps to swarm. Same amount of bees on 20th, so didn't they didn't swarm as I kept an eye on the hive all day.

Will do as you suggest leaving one good QC in main hive and transfer other frame with a QC to a nuc with some frames and bees.

 

[MartinL]

You don't say how many colonies you have!

If only one colony I'd take the chance of a swarm with the insurance of at least one viable colony at the end of it all.

 

[JWF]

You don't say how many colonies you have!

If only one colony I'd take the chance of a swarm with the insurance of at least one viable colony at the end of it all.

Surely the chance of no swarms and 2 viable queens is a better option?

 

[GaryB]

Went in today, left one good looking sealed QC in main hive, and transferred another frame with a sealed QC into a nuc together with frame of sealed brood and frame of stores and pollen, and shook a couple of frames in also. By my calculations, the queens should be emerging within two to three days. Then it is fingers crossed that they get mated ASAP, although the forecast isn't looking great. We need some more warmth.