Queen fine, but...

[Fannbee]

Hey guys and girls.  Last week I posted that I might have injured the queen in my strong hive and was going to check to see if she was hurt this week.   Well, she is doing great with lots of eggs and larva; however, upon my inspection I saw 5 queen cups (none sealed) on the bottom of the 3rd frame.  Also, I had an enclosed queen cell on the side of the frame.   I am befuddled on what to do or if I need to do anything.   I reversed the boxes on the hive.    It has been warm, but it does drop to the low 30's at night.   This is my first spring with bees.  Do I need to do anything?   

[Michael Bush]

>Hey guys and girls.  Last week I posted that I might have injured the queen in my strong hive and was going to check to see if she was hurt this week.   Well, she is doing great with lots of eggs and larva; however, upon my inspection I saw 5 queen cups (none sealed) on the bottom of the 3rd frame.  Also, I had an enclosed queen cell on the side of the frame.   I am befuddled on what to do or if I need to do anything.

Is the hive full of bees?  Is there space to store nectar?  Does the brood nest have a lot of nectar scattered through it?

If there is little room, nectar in the brood nest and the hive is crowded, I would assume they are about to swarm.  I would split them in that case.

Since you said the queen was injured, if those other criteria aren't there, that would be likely to point to swarming, I'd assume they are superceding her, in which case I'd leave them alone.

>  I reversed the boxes on the hive.

Did this split the brood nest?

>    It has been warm, but it does drop to the low 30's at night.   This is my first spring with bees.  Do I need to do anything?   

If they are swarming, yes.  You need to split them.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesexperiment.htm

The one thing I would NOT do is destroy the queen cells.  If they are superceding you could end up queenless.  Even if they are swarming, you could also end up queenless.

[Fannbee]

Michael, thank you for the information.   

I was able to contac a local beekeeper and he advice to do a split.  He stated we can get a cold snap in March and it is early for a split in MS.  The temps are predictied to be in the 70s for this week.  I droved thru the Delta a couple of days ago and the farmers had not even turned dirt for their summer crops.   

This hive I got last May with the same queen.   If I can I will do a split Tuesday.  If not, hopefully the bees are superceding.

[Scadsobees]

Were the queen cups occupied by larvae and royal jelly or were they empty?

-rick

[Fannbee]

Good question.  I believe one had a larva in it.   Next time I will take a better gaze in the cup.