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Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:02 May 2022, 20:52
by gwt_uk
Hello all,

Today, for the first time in my beekeeping journey I removed a queen from a hive (after finding charged queen cells) and made up a Nuc with 3 frames of brood some stores and a couple shakes of bees. I left one QC in the hive and was planning on returning this weekend to see if more queen cells had been made. Correct course of action? There were still lots of eggs so am assuming they will try and make QCs

Re: Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:03 May 2022, 00:00
by Patrick
Sounds good to me. Don't forget if you keep the nuc in the same apiary or theoretically within three miles of the apiary as the crow flies that many of the flying bees may return "home". If you are too parsimonious with the number of bees or brood frames you transfer, that may leave the nuc a bit underpopulated.

The making up of a nuc with the old queen is great for the one hive beekeeper, simply because whatever happens to your main hive, you still have a back up laying queen and eggs available to you.

Re: Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:03 May 2022, 01:22
by MickBBKA
I would go back in 3 days after removal of old queen and then again in another 3 days making sure you have marked the frame with your chosen queen cell and removed all emergency and scrub queen cells.

Re: Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:03 May 2022, 07:29
by gwt_uk
MickBBKA wrote:
03 May 2022, 01:22
I would go back in 3 days after removal of old queen and then again in another 3 days making sure you have marked the frame with your chosen queen cell and removed all emergency and scrub queen cells.
Thank you

Re: Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:03 May 2022, 07:30
by gwt_uk
Patrick wrote:
03 May 2022, 00:00
Sounds good to me. Don't forget if you keep the nuc in the same apiary or theoretically within three miles of the apiary as the crow flies that many of the flying bees may return "home". If you are too parsimonious with the number of bees or brood frames you transfer, that may leave the nuc a bit underpopulated.

The making up of a nuc with the old queen is great for the one hive beekeeper, simply because whatever happens to your main hive, you still have a back up laying queen and eggs available to you.
Thanks yes keeping it in the same apiary.

Re: Left One Queen Cell

PostPosted:03 May 2022, 09:33
by AdamD
So far so good!
I would also go back shortly before the queencell is due to emerge and double-check that there are no other queencells present to be absolutely sure, as sometimes I have gone in and found a very late queencell (maybe from a cooler part of the hive where development is slower?) and I think "How did that get there?" as the queencell seems to have been produced after the books say it should have been.