Damaged Queen Cell Advice Please

[amandaw]

Hi,

I've been keeping bees for a couple of years and have been lucky enough to have never faced a queen cell. However today that changed!

The colony in question is on a brood and a half with a super being worked above a QE. The brood is spread across 5 frames and is across both boxes. There were two queen cells on the bottom of a frame in the half but they'd been 'glued' to the frames below and so were damaged when I separated them. Both contained Royal jelly and I saw the current queen. There were around 5 small queen cups but no eggs in them (that I could see).

Given there were only 2 cells and both were damaged my current plan is to check them again in a couple of days with a nuc ready prepared to take action but I'm concerned if they are attaching them to the frames below I'm just going to damage any new cells when I open up.

Any thoughts or advice would be welcome. Many thanks.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just have a look again as you planned. This time instead of lifting the box away try just tilting it away from you
That way you should be able to see exactly where they are.
I'd be very surprised if that's all the swarm cells there were. Did you shake all the bees off the frames and pay particular attention to along the side bars?

 

[snelgrove]

with brood and a half the centre of the brood nest is the bottom of the half box, therefore as mention before simply remove honey supers and cracked half box and pull back slightly and tilt. If swarm cells are started they are usually seen on bottom of frames but not always. They can be constructed further down and be missed without removing frames
If you find cells some kind of swarm control will be necessary. in a strong colony it is necessary to shake frames clear of bees.
it's best to inspect a colony with a purpose and not to go back a few days later to complete the inspection.

 

[Swarm]

Tore the side off a queen cell today, it was attached to the next frame. Don't worry about it too much, there'll be others.

 

[enrico]

Here is a good tip, find a frame with fresh eggs in the centre, take your hive tool and scrape the cells immediately below these eggs back to the foundation, the width of your hive tool( top to bottom) and about 1inch long (side to side). If your bees are in swarming mode and you have accidentally destroyed the queen cells or if you add a frame of eggs to a queenless hive you can bet your bottom dollar this is where the queen cells will be made. It makes looking for them easy and it keeps them safe rather than hanging on the bottom.
I also always put my brood at right angles to my half brood, some don't like this method but I find it stops them sticking the top frame to the one underneath it.
E

 

[amandaw]

Thanks all for the very useful advice, much appreciated.