3 capped queen cells

ski · Post by **ski** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 5:25 pm

I went through a few of my hives today all seemed to have at least a small patch of brood.
In one hive with a small patch of brood I also found 3 capped queen cells. They were in the middle of the frame so maybe supercedure cells. However no drones or drone brood was found. This just seems to be so early for queen cells.
Do these queens have any kind of a chance of getting mated?

Post by **Wally** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 5:47 pm

I haven't seen a drone yet, in 15 or more hives. I went through about 6 more today and haven't seen even a drone cell.

ski · Post by **ski** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:03 am

I just read on Beesource that some drones were spotted in Burlington. Maybe there will be enough drones around in a couple of weeks. Will be interesting to see how it works out.

mike91553 · Post by **mike91553** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:41 pm

ski,

read the post again, I saw 1 drone land on the landing board of a very strong hive. I havn't seen any since and my thoughts are that this could of been one that escaped getting kicked out last fall.

I wouldn't expect there would be enough flying now for a queen to mated very well.

ski · Post by **ski** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:16 am

mike91553,

LOL yea having DCA's in a couple of weeks is not going to happen, just wishful thinking on my part lol. The queen cells are in the middle of the frames so very likely are supercedure cells so the hive should cary on just fine. I was suprised to see queen cells this early.

ski · Post by **ski** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:22 am

Went through this hive again yesterday, the queen cells have been torn down but I did find a queen. However there was no capped brood or larvae, pretty good chance (99.99%) she is a virgin queen. I only saw a few drones total in 5 hives so she may never be mated.

Time to look for a new queen.