Lots Of Queen Nests, Help
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Hi Viktor. Are you talking about removing queen cells? It sounds like your hive is either trying to re-queen itself or is trying to throw a swarm. Be careful cutting out queen cells because you will probably end up queenless. Give your hive more room in the brood chamber area, it may help.
I probably can't help you much but the first thing these guys are going to want is more info.
where are the cells located? At the bottom of the frames or up high?
How much room do they have?
Is the brood nest back filled with necter?
How many boxes and what size?
Are all frames drawn?
do you know how old your queen is?
what does your brood patterns look like? Even or more like a shotgun pattern?
They either want to swarm or supersede. If supersede I would let them. If swarm it may be hard to stop at this point.
If I had one I thought was going to swarm I'd put the queen and most of the capped brood in a nuc box and let the hive raise a new one. But that's just me.
Anxious to hear what these guys tell you. Woody
where are the cells located? At the bottom of the frames or up high?
How much room do they have?
Is the brood nest back filled with necter?
How many boxes and what size?
Are all frames drawn?
do you know how old your queen is?
what does your brood patterns look like? Even or more like a shotgun pattern?
They either want to swarm or supersede. If supersede I would let them. If swarm it may be hard to stop at this point.
If I had one I thought was going to swarm I'd put the queen and most of the capped brood in a nuc box and let the hive raise a new one. But that's just me.
Anxious to hear what these guys tell you. Woody
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Some types of bees just like to build and tear down queen cells all the time, practicing maybe. I have had a bunch of these in a couple of my hives that have good queens - they don't seem to do any harm. But answering the questions above will help to confirm what's going on.
I first started with Russians. They kept a queen in the oven nearly all the time. Just before it hatched they would tear into from the side and start a new one. I really liked this trait. Now they have bred with the local ferals so long they no longer do it. Darn! Woody
Whatever the reason for making cells, tearing them out is the WRONG approach.
Either let them alone, or pull a nuc and start another hive with your old queen, then let them raise the new one. If you keep tearing them out, I can almost guarantee you the hive will become queenless and die out.
Either let them alone, or pull a nuc and start another hive with your old queen, then let them raise the new one. If you keep tearing them out, I can almost guarantee you the hive will become queenless and die out.
I can't give you a good assessment. Their all I've ever had so I can't compare them to anything else.
A year or two in a friend gave me a nuc of Russians. Bought from the same guy as my hive. At this time I had 4 or 5 hives. Due to robbing( entrances too large, hives too weak from too many splits) and small hive beetles I lost every hive I had except for his nuc. I still have that queen, I think this will be her 4th winter. She's still going strong. All of my bees are out of her or her daughters.
I like the fact that I've never treated with anything. I use the IPK beetle traps from green beehives on all my hives. I have very few mites and no hive beetles. When the flow slows down so do my queens. A two deep hive will eat about 4 frames of honey between oct and feb. they go thru a lot after that though.
My hives are probably more ferel than Russian but I'm completely satisfied with them. But again I don't know any better!
Woody
is this hive congested in terms of population or not?
If congested with population and given you seem to suggest queen cells by the dozen then the hive may well be trying to swarm. It is however totally the wrong time of year for this and the only real reason I might understand why this is the outcome is crowding and a significant nectar flow that constricts the brood nest <I have been told that golden rod at moderate elevation will do this quite routinely.
if you do not have crowding and the brood nest is not being back filled (with nectar or pollen) then quite likely the purpose is queen replacement <this is generally highly dependent on the age of the existing queen and can often be predicted when a queen get to be about two years old.... the simple explanation here is that a robust population and a decline in the queens mandibular pheromone has created the situation where the workers believe the queen needs to be replace.
although in some situation I do knock down cells quite routinely this is not one of those situation and the time of the season for you makes knocking down cells some what risky. risky in that the queen may well need replaced and at the first turn in weather you will have no drones to mate with what ever replacement queen you might rear yourself... if she does need replacing I can almost guarantee you that the existing queen will not make it until spring time no matter what your location.
I would suggest you chose one of the two alternative that iddee has suggest above.
If congested with population and given you seem to suggest queen cells by the dozen then the hive may well be trying to swarm. It is however totally the wrong time of year for this and the only real reason I might understand why this is the outcome is crowding and a significant nectar flow that constricts the brood nest <I have been told that golden rod at moderate elevation will do this quite routinely.
if you do not have crowding and the brood nest is not being back filled (with nectar or pollen) then quite likely the purpose is queen replacement <this is generally highly dependent on the age of the existing queen and can often be predicted when a queen get to be about two years old.... the simple explanation here is that a robust population and a decline in the queens mandibular pheromone has created the situation where the workers believe the queen needs to be replace.
although in some situation I do knock down cells quite routinely this is not one of those situation and the time of the season for you makes knocking down cells some what risky. risky in that the queen may well need replaced and at the first turn in weather you will have no drones to mate with what ever replacement queen you might rear yourself... if she does need replacing I can almost guarantee you that the existing queen will not make it until spring time no matter what your location.
I would suggest you chose one of the two alternative that iddee has suggest above.
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