Ok here is my dilemma had a queen with a bad pattern culled her and put in a cell from another hive. She mated and started a nice pattern and now after checking yesterday they have 3 queen cells almost caped in a supersede position on a frame. So options I see is to split it and let them regroup or jus let the supersede. This hive was a five frame and just never took off till after the cull. Now in a 10 with 1/2 super drawn out of honey. I am kind of leaning to the split and feed back up to strength. Suggestions
Thanks
A few thoughts and comments, and in this case as described also some suggestions of what I would do.
I will probably miss something but here goes. With supercedure cells the bees saying something, or maybe nothing. Maybe they are just bored and practicing. We do what we can to help them have the best queen but at some point there may be something they know that we do not. Bees know much more about bees than we do. Bees will do things bees do.
We do know a few things. Bees initiate supercedure based on
- a queen that is injured or sick,
- or failing; meaning she is not laying enough or what she is laying are not viable,
- or she does not smell enough (pheromone) which can be from
... - she is old and not giving off enough smell
... - she has way too much room to roam in the hive and has gone for a walk away from the heart of the nest. Her pheromone presence is shared with the bees around her who, for a short period, may not reach every other bee tending the nest that she strolled away from. (I see this when extra brood boxes are added too soon.)
... - She is newly mated and just does not smell enough-YET. Later when she has all of her equipment sorted out and she is in full lay and stinking sufficiently the supercedure cells stop. With new queens the bees often start supercedure cells then tear them down and stop once they realize the queen is ramping up and doing well.
Based on what you describe, I think this is a case of the queen is just new and getting established. Here is what I would do.
- the beekeeper is happy with the new queen performance
- it is known she is a new queen
- examine the queen very closely for signs of injury or deformity
- if happy with how she looks, do not allow the supercedure. Destroy the cells and come back in one week. Give her some time to convince the bees that all is well with her.
- if they keep trying to replace her, in following inspections, then allow it to happen.
Injury Example: Once had a great queen. Laying up a storm. Awesome queen, great bees. But they kept trying to replace her each week. But Why?! (cry). I discovered that although she was performing exceptionally at laying and producing great productive and gentle bees .... she had been injured at some point. Her two hind legs were paralyzed, dragged along. She was doing everything with only 4 legs. The bees knew this. I did not until I looked really really close. I left the hive with supercedure cells and put the crippled queen into a 5 frame nuc. I easily protected her in there and she became my best breeder queen, queen cell producer, for the rest of that summer.
Thoughts to ponder.
Hope that helps!
Topic: Queen cell question (Read 1624 times)