Thanks Rick. Next time I'm in I will move some of the frames around. I wasn't sure that was a good idea, but at this point I'll give it a shot.
Hi Tom,
We scrape those queen cups off when we see them on the bottom - I think it just makes us feel better that they aren't there. Also, on our strong hives, we "checkerboard" frames to make the bees think they still have work to do in the middle of the brood box. We are constantly moving/rotating the outer frames (that they sometimes avoid) to the middle of the box so they work on building those out. These are just some things we have done that have worked - so far - for us.
Rick & Debbie
Hi, Tom!
First those are queen cups, not queen cells. They are probably "dry" which is fine. No royal jelly or larva. They put queen cups out just in case they are going to need them down the road. Those cups become queen cells (also known as swarm cells) when there is a larva in them and they start drawing them out into the peanut shape.
Your weak hive definitely needs to be re-queened. Best is to put a mated queen in (after you kill the queen). We can order one if you want. Send me an email. They are about $40 depending on shipping.
We'll have queen cells this Sunday but that means it will be three weeks before you get new brood in there. We'll have our very own mated queens available about July 22 if you wanted to allow the hive to limp on. We are hoping everyone in the club with a weak colony will re-queen the end of July.
By now a strong nuc should have fourteen to sixteen frames total. Since they didn't draw out quite a few frames in either deep brood box, one super is plenty. With the blackberries in bloom you can stop giving them sugar water. The blackberry nectar is better for them. You can leave the empty feeder on if it helps with ventilation.
Hope this helps. Obviously it's just my opinions and opinions vary. There's almost never one right answer.
Claire
My strong hive looks good with no apparent queen cells. However, they have yet to start building out the outer frames of the very first deep I placed the nuke in. But they have started drawing out some of the center frames of the second deep. I placed the queen excluder and 2 medium honey supers, the feeder board and then the feeder on top.
My weak hive is working but still seems to be struggling. They have only drawn a total of 6 frames in the bottom deep I placed the nuke in. Nothing on the second deep at all. Also, I'm attaching 3 pictures I took of the bottom deep with some cells that I'm not sure are queen cells. They may be drones. Please help me ID the cells with the red arrows pointing at them.
I plan on going into my 2 hives tomorrow for a full inspection and then to add the supers finally. I'll let you all know if I see any queen cells... you all have me worried now :)
I've had so many calls from beekeepers about their bees swarming.
Yesterday I went into a hive with a beekeeper and found capped swarm cells. This was a hive that we went into a week ago and removed EVERY queen cup. They rebuilt them all. In my opinion (which could change, of course) the best thing to do is an "artificial swarm". We found the queen, put her in another ten frame box and took about half the frames of capped brood from the original colony. There must be NO SWARM cells on those frames. We moved the artificial swarm colony to my house where it will stay for a few weeks. So hopefully one of the original colony's queen cells will get successfully mated and in about three weeks the hive will be back to growing.
For another beekeeper whose bees just swarmed and the swarm is too high to reach, we are putting out a large bait hive with honey frame in it. It's best to put it quite away from the original hive. A quarter mile would be great. He'll know in twenty-four hours if it worked. I'll let you know.
A nuc box is too small. A swarm will never choose such a small space.
Lastly, if the swarm is still flying, you can try "drumming the bees". Just get a metal pan and something and keep banging and banging and banging. It sometimes makes them come back down to the ground. We've actually had a few beekeepers who have been successful in doing this.