This is from my hive inspection this weekend. There are a number of queen cups that have formed at the bottom of this frame, which is from the middle brood super. They are empty, except for the one that almost half way down from the top. From that one appears to be a large larvae emerging? But that couldn't be a new queen, as the cup is not big enough to be a new queen, as that is elongated like a peanut, correct? For additional context, I'm a second year beekeeper. This colony is from a new nuc last year. It seemed to overwinter really well. Two brood boxes are 2/3 full, and the third brood box is close to 1/2 full. The Queen (although I haven't seen her in since last summer) still seems healthy, as there is lots of brood, larvae, and I see new eggs in the bottom (the one that is half-full) super. Added queen excluder and first honey super two weeks ago.
Well, I am leaning on saying the queen cups are practice cups and the larva looks like drone. I’d keep a close eye on progress, keep up giving them space (rotate empty drawn foundation)into the brood area and add honey supers.
k
That pupa you see looks like a drone that was on some comb that was built across the space between the boxes. Think about ways to make more room in your brood chamber. Maybe moving frames so that the nurse bees aren’t so packed in.
Thank you for that advice. So what are these latest developments? These are looking more like new queen cells? I have three brood supers and one honey super, so that should be sufficient room currently?
These are capped queen cells - on the bottom of the frames - they are swarm cells. And they look quite ripe. Did your hive swarm yet? If not - you can try to find the queen immediately and move her with some workers. (Likely already too late). It will be difficult to find here as she likley has been slimmed down to fly with the swarm. If you don't find her - she WILL swarm at this point. My recommendation is to cut all but two or three of those cells out. OR use frames with cells to make splits. Either way, the bees already decided to swarm. Be vigilant because they are going if you don't do anything. Be a good neighbor and keep you eyes on your neighborhood/. Hang a scion or trap - maybe you'll get lucky - Do as I say not as I do: I pulled a queen from an hive that looked like this last week - I did NOT cut many cells out because I was short on time - Short story - even after a moved the queen. The hive cast two swarms yesterday. I caught one but one of my neighbors donated the other to the bucks county facebook page - and a beekeeper in Jamison got them in under an hour. ( I have too many bees/hives right now!)
Kurt, thanks for the timely response. I just came in from doing a quick, rather improvised split. Unfortunately I do not have all of the extra materials (bottom box, inside cover, top cover), but at least had two empty supers to work with.
They have not swarmed yet, and fortunately this morning (cool and cloudy) seemed to make for a good time to just get out and do it as best I could. Finding my (unmarked) queen is a thankless task. So I cut off all but two of the queen cells that are on the same frame, and moved them over to the new box (2 feet away). I then mixed in brood and food frames into that box. Then added another super above with more brood and food and some empty frames.
Fingers crossed!
I just got a visit from one of Doylestown Twp. workmen. Apparently someone filed a report on 4/25 of a bee swarm in one of the trees on our property. Would have been a 100-150 ft from the location of their hive.
So my presumption is that this is swarm is from my colony? Although the timing is a little off? I didn't see any queen cells on my inspection on 4/21, but then did see them on 4/28 - which would have been after the swarm. Also I still see the same general amount of bees overall, and did still see new larva on 4/28. At what point would/should I requeen? Also I suppose I should wait for the outcome of the queen cells that I moved to a second hive after doing the split to determine if I need one queen or two?
Updating this thread. I spoke with Kurt at the May Intermediate class. He explained the "bee math" of the late summer and that not having a queen is not a big problem at this time of year. He recommended to just let things settle for a few weeks to see if a) the first hive regrows a new queen, and b) if the queen cells I moved to the split develop a new queen. Happy to report that yesterday's hive inspection showed lots of new eggs and also growing larvae. So there must be a new queen and based on the number of eggs/larvae she seems pretty strong. The second hive fortunately did have new eggs, but nearly as many and I did not see any larvae yet. So I am presuming she is still maturing or just later in her cycle.
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