Queen cells in April!

[Pete Nicholson]

Hi All, need help here!
1st inspection today on both my colony's.
All good re BIAS and bees, as have overwintered with plenty of stores and insulation.
Could not find queens as quick inspection so was just looking at health of hives (BIAS)
Both colony's on brood and half with super under (nadir?)
On opening up 1st box - super under has five QC's on one frame at top and capped! ('um this is April! .....)
I'm assuming that these are swarm cells as below the BB frames - but they were full of stores and brood so where do they go (below?)
Second colony just has one QC top of BB frame.
I have today swapped the super unders to super overs but kept brood and half configuration as so many bees.
Also taken off all insulation.
And stuck on QE on both and supered with drawn frames.
Q1. Have I done right?
Q2. What do I do about the QC's

all answers gratefully received + has anyone else had this so early?
Pete.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I might be concerned that one hive has swarmed. What sort of brood did you see? Capped,larvae,eggs? You need to know whether queen is still there and whether you should thin those cells down or split the colony?
The other might be a supersedure so I would leave alone. Mark the frame and have a look in a week.

 

[enrico]

If you have a strong hive I would make a nuc up with one of the queen cells, frame of brood and food, that way you have a back up, you can always re unite it later if you don't need or want it, the problem with queen cells now is lack of drones so mating may be poor, however if they were my hives I would leave one capped queen cell in the hive with multiple in and remove the single one in the other hive. I also prefer to leave the nadir under the main brood box. It rarely needs checking as, as you have found, the queen cells tend to be between the brood and the nadir. The other way round doesn't work like that so you always have to check both box's .
Hope all that makes sense.
E

 

[Millet]

I pulled mine to bit's yesterday and found one Queen cell which was empty so i am happy for now.

 

[Beefriendly]

Q1. Have I done right?
Q2. What do I do about the QC's

all answers gratefully received + has anyone else had this so early?
Pete.

Good question...from your description it sounds like too many stores and not enough laying room for queen.
Many options...one of perhaps several sugeastions you will get is provide drawn comb for queen to lay in and destroy queen cells and see what happens. If redraw QC perhaps let them get on with (after reducing to one").

 

[Pete Nicholson]

Thanks for the advice Erica - will have a closer look in a couple of days when they have settled down.
Always difficult to have a really good look when first inspection as just want to get an idea of how they are without disturbing too much.
P.

 

[Pete Nicholson]

Enrico - Many thanks for your advice and probably will go this way in a couple of days after another inspection to hopefully see what they are up to.
One problem is that I have supered the nadir to get access to the QC's without disturbing the BB - off the cuff decision as the forecast is back to cold again for the next week so didn't want to open up too long to chill brood.
Thank yoou so much for your advice.
P.

 

[Pete Nicholson]

Thanks Beefriendly for your suggestions. Will try after a couple of days and take into account Enrico's suggestion.
What a GREAT forum this is - I was on here a couple of years ago and when posted Q's got such negative replies that I became slightly disheartened - but this is such a positive feed from all of you.
Thank you all.
P.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Let us know what happens. Feedback is useful for anybody answering your questions too. One of us might be right? We might all be wrong

 

[Stiffy]

Been through all of mine now and some are going great guns, others are okay and some poor and will be combined in the next few weeks.
One of the really strong ones, a colony of black bees has decided its not too early to bxxxer off and building q. cells.
So, no its not too early for some
S

 

[Vortex]

I thought I might have problems with 1 colony when I went to inspect Sunday.. I didn't...

Went into another at a different Apiary and found 15 QC.. 3 capped .. good job I took a Nuc box with me..

Hopefully the split and knockdown will have reduced their inclination to swarm.. will have to wait until Monday to find out...

 

[Heather]

Had 3 swarm call outs so the queens are out there. My hives have few drones hatched but some still capped. ITS KICKING OFF!

 

[Luka22]

Started first inspection today. Found a pipping unmarked Queen plus 4 capped QCs on 1 Frame and 1 more on another Frame. Moved both Frames into a Nuc. The QC were all on the bottom of the Frame. Can I assume they swarmed? The Hives are in Kent, weather so so... just sounds very early.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If all brood is sealed...yes

 

[For want of a better word]

First splits today.... no q cells seen in my native bees and the yellow ones are just getting going on the rape.... First Native Cornish black Amm queens will be out for mating on Mayday.... lots of drones maturing nicely.

The bones are predicting a warm May... then turning wet for remainder of Summer... which is ideal for the Amm... not so good for the foreigners perhaps?

Yeghes da