Beekeeping UK, Swarm cells or supersedure cells ?

looking for Queen cells, are they swarming cells or are they supersedure cells that is the question!!

[@bradgoliphant]

Question for you. If your hive is about to swarm, and you get rid of all the super-sedure cells, will the hive still swarm?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Nice to hear from you again Brad , I do not normally get rid of supersedure cells as the colony must realise they need a new queen and I have not as yet had them swarm with supersedure cells two or three in the centre of one the frame , sometimes even the old queen is still there laying eggs after the new Queen has gone out on her mating flight , Regarding swarm cells 15 at the bottom Of the frame as long as they’re not capped, removing them all normally stops them swarming, but unless you give them more space they will make more Queen cells and then swarm a week later , hope that helps happy beekeeping from john

[@markarnill5096]

Hello I have 7 hives but I am a bit confused I have a hive with a Custer of bees that have taken up residence under the bottom of the screen bored Not sure weather it was a swarm that turned up or weather it’s because I didn’t a split to the other hive next to it because i found that they had 2 really good cap queen cells so I mad 2 nuc box’s from them and moved the main hive away from the The site so not sure if it’s bees that are from that that are just being awkward help 🤣

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

It happened to a friend of mine as well , I would just pop them into a nuc and have a look sometime to see if there’s a queen, although a bit awkward to do , beekeeping isn’t always straightforward is it hope all works out for you John

[@markarnill5096]

I have all my hives on double brood boxes this is my 3 year of keeping bees

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Well done, for having doubles , they are obviously quite difficult to handle that amount of bees, so you’ve done very well for third year beekeeping, 👍👏👏👏

[@lorrainelietz4384]

Thank you for your video! I truly enjoyed it. I am a new bee keeper. This is my first season. I love how you talked about making mistakes - I know I have made several in this very short time. I have one hive that I think has been trying to swarm all summer. Each time I go in there are queen cells on frames and on the bottom of the frames. An experienced bee keeper told me to first find the queen then remove the cells to try and change their minds about swarming. I have been trying to do that on a weekly basis. Well - I must have missed a cell or two because upon my inspection yesterday - it looks like I have 2 capped supersedure cells right in the middle of a frame with capped brood on it. I have more capped brood than I ever have had and the 2 deep boxes are not totally full like yours - so i do not know why they are trying to supersede her or swarm. It has been like with all summer. Because I saw no eggs yesterday and did not see the queen I decided to leave the cell in the hive. It may be a mistake - it is late in the year for big changes - I live in up state New York - it will be cold here soon. Thank you for your video!!

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Lorraine Lietz Hi Lorraine you have the same name as my sister happy beekeeping to you, if all fails you could buy a new mated queen SAP if definitely no old queen in the hive if you get the same thing happen again next year try splitting the hive ending with two hives one with the old queen and one with queen cells all the best John

[@dovinedrake6482]

Love hearing the bird's. Sounds different from here in the U.S. 😁👍

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

How nice to hear from you, I too love the sound of birds, only yesterday myself and my wife Lin were listening and looking at the skylarks over our property hope you and your family are all keeping well , thanks for commenting , kind regards from john

[@chriscarey6614]

How do you find the Hoffman self spaceing. Frames for uncapping Chris Preston lancashire

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Chris, I am very pleased with the Hoffman frames they uncap fine, keep well kind regards John.

[@electricengineer624]

Your living in a garden of heaven bro Praise the Lord

[@andrewdibben5319]

Thanks for this, it’s been very informative for a new beekeeper. Keep safe 👋

[@cfuller721]

Do bees not like latex gloves?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

cfuller721 Hello, I have never found no problem using latex gloves, although I think they prefer the light coloured ones, Sometimes I can only get the bright coloured blue ones and I noticed they back away sometimes, but overall I prefer using them, I can feel the Bees much easier and cause less damage using latex gloves. Thanks for watching from john

[@marymarriott6099]

Thanks John, very helpful.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Mary Marriott happy beekeeping to you

[@rupertmedford3901]

The birds are louder than you

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

yes noisy birds i live next to woodland but i love them singing thanks John.

[@lisadurham2545]

Which is a beautiful thing ! Its nice to see a careful calm inspection especially for a new beekeeper. I have been keeping bees a fairly long time but would have loved to have had the chance to watch something like this when I first started.

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@lisadurham2545 thank you so much, for your kind comment, it means a lot to me regards John

[@gillknight9547]

Thanks for your gentle commentary. A new bee keeper myself, i wish i had watched this before our weekend inspection. Sadly we had a swarm leave during the cold weather last week when we didnt inspect. So our Queen was gone for about 8 days, no new eggs or larvae on inspection. Many sealed superceeded queen cells with queens - at least 6! We are hoping we have removed them all and we aren't due any more casts. We put one queen with sealed brood and stores and some foundation in our original NUC. 2 queens we found and secured, one has died and we are going to see if they are showing any interest in her tomorrow. Not finding a Queen in the original hive we don't know if there is a queen there as all. A very steep learning curve for us this weekend. Any advice ?

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

Hi Gill' sounds very interesting, first of all the same thing happened to me because of the weather! I managed to collect my swarm of a nearby tree! sounds to me you are doing very will as new beekeepers well done. normally with supersedure cells the old Queen stays in the hive, some times laying eggs and some times just walking about on the frames. Only swarm cells will she normally fly off with some of the colony. If there is a virgin queen in original hive best to leave for two weeks then inspected for laying queen after two weeks.second thing you could try is putting some eggs from one other hive and see if they make emergency cells, then you will know if there is a queen or not, its not easy some time to make the right decision. You will always have your original Nuc to combine if all goes wrong in two weeks also you will need to feed your original Nuc to help with drawing out the foundation you put in , not sure if that has helped, kind regards John.

[@gillknight9547]

@@johnbeemansaunders6567 Thanks Yes, there is so much conflicting info its hard to decide what choice of action. We believe she left as there was no sign of eggs or larvae so i think she had been gone over a week. Told to put the queen in the container on the hive to see if the bees are interested in her, if yes then its doubtful there is a queen in the hive and to introduce her. I think my concern is that it was a new hive this season, 1st overwinter, and if half of them have left do we have enough bees for a NUC and a hive

[@gillknight9547]

we did feed the NUC BTW

[@johnbeemansaunders6567]

@@gillknight9547 Hi again Gill, a good summer and im sure you will have plenty of bees