Deaner666
New Bee
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Cornwall
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 2
Hi all - just looking for some reassurance / guidance here.
I'm in my second year of beekeeping (but the first in which I should get some honey!). Me and my beekeeping buddy (me mum!), caught a swarm in a bait box about 6 weeks ago.
On our first inspection after moving them into the apiary, we found three large queen cells, all unsealed.
I guessed these were supersedure cells, which seemed perfectly natural to me (old queen leaves old hive to start a new one elsewhere, bees replace her with a virile new queen).
The three cells were all still visible on subsequent inspections and always unsealed. There was a gap of about 2 weeks between two of the inspections due to weather. I did wonder if a new queen had been hatched during this period.
However, I inspected the hive last Wednesday (25th July) and found all three queen cells sealed. So I guess they've only just now got round to performing the supersedure.
Am I right to leave the bees to get on with superseding by themselves in this situation (if superseding is indeed what they're doing?). Somebody from the local association said I should destroy two of the queen cells and just leave one to hatch - why would this be? Surely the bees rear more than one cell for a reason?
Are there any further actions I should take once the new queen is hatched? Anything I need to do to ensure she's properly mated etc.?
Cheers,
Dave
I'm in my second year of beekeeping (but the first in which I should get some honey!). Me and my beekeeping buddy (me mum!), caught a swarm in a bait box about 6 weeks ago.
On our first inspection after moving them into the apiary, we found three large queen cells, all unsealed.
I guessed these were supersedure cells, which seemed perfectly natural to me (old queen leaves old hive to start a new one elsewhere, bees replace her with a virile new queen).
The three cells were all still visible on subsequent inspections and always unsealed. There was a gap of about 2 weeks between two of the inspections due to weather. I did wonder if a new queen had been hatched during this period.
However, I inspected the hive last Wednesday (25th July) and found all three queen cells sealed. So I guess they've only just now got round to performing the supersedure.
Am I right to leave the bees to get on with superseding by themselves in this situation (if superseding is indeed what they're doing?). Somebody from the local association said I should destroy two of the queen cells and just leave one to hatch - why would this be? Surely the bees rear more than one cell for a reason?
Are there any further actions I should take once the new queen is hatched? Anything I need to do to ensure she's properly mated etc.?
Cheers,
Dave