Thursday, August 22, 2013

Queen Cell?

So here's a question for you veteran beekeepers out there.  Is this a queen cell?


It's pointed down, on the edge of the frame, it's bigger than the a worker cell, and it has an egg it in.  The next question would be, what do I do?  If the colony wants to swarm, it will swarm.  Whatever's left may not be strong enough to make it through the winter.  I am thinking about pulling the frame and trying to make a nucleus colony out of it.  Any thoughts?  I guess maybe the hive was doing too well.


1 comment:

  1. I'll post a more brief reply here for anyone that sees this: a couple of queen cells is not swarm prep but very likely supersedure. Very risky at this late point to mate a queen but you can move the old queen into a nuc and keep her on hand just in case the new queen fails to mate.

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