Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[BSJ]

Hello everyone,

I'd be grateful for your take on this, please.

In an inspection, two days ago, I could not find the queen but I did find one queen cell (capped!) on the middle of the frame. I assumed supersedure because there was only 1 cell and naturally, I left it alone. It was capped but there has been no reduction in the bee population so it can't have been a swarm, can it?

I just inspected again. They are angry.
Again, I can find no queen, the capped queen cell is no longer there, no eggs either, which is worrying although there is plenty of brood, pollen and honey.

Have I had a supersedure of an old queen? How do I know if it has been successful before it's too late to do anyting if it hasn't? Do I need to do anything?

Thanks

B

[catchercradle]

As noted in another thread, bees are often a bit stroppy at the end of the oil seed rape flow, Lots of people here in Cambridge notice this, though I haven't with my own bees. Don't know your area of Norfolk well enough to know if that is relevant.

I think you are right to be worried about the lack of eggs as my understanding and experience of supercedure is that the old queen will still be present and laying eggs for a while before she dies and the new queen takes over comp[letely.

My suggestion would be to wait long enough for the new queen if present to go on her mating flight before looking again. so maybe two weeks or a little more. My eyesight is not good enough to see eggs, so I don't bother looking for them. Are there any young larvae still?

Be good to get some other views on this from people who inspect their hives more often than I do. I only look in the brood nest if I have reason to think there is a problem.

[BSJ]

[trekmate]

Same advice as catchercradle, but I'd suggest the old queens production may have dwindled at such a rate that she has almost sopped laying before the bees react with a suspercedure cell.

I've found that bees can be quite tetchy during that "quenlees" spell before the new queen is up to speed, which is where you are.

[DrMartin]

No eggs, no queen and a sealed queen cell sounds like they might have swarmed. Bees can and do swarm on one cell (it's happened to me before). Unless you're doing a full head count each time you won't necessarily notice the decline in bees - most of the swarm are foragers who are mostly out when you usually inspect.

[BSJ]