# Is this a queen cell?



## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

Usually peanut looking. How long ago did you put a frame with eggs and larvae in this hive?


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

Yep it's a queen cell!


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

Yes, it is peanut looking, a great description. I put the bar of eggs and larvae in around the middle of July so I wasn't sure how long it would take.

Slow Drone, you made my day!!


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## MariahK (Dec 28, 2014)

It looks like two on that frame


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

It's a capped queen cell and at least a few uncapped.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

I'm amazed at what you guys can see from that photo, where are the uncapped?


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

It does look like two capped queen cells and another uncapped just to the right but they are right in the middle of drone brood.

You either have a laying worker hive or they turned some drone brood into q cells from the frame you added. Depending on how long ago you add brood, and if you have worker brood now.

A queenless hive in a last ditch effort will make queen cells from drone brood, these won't amount to anything and may not live as a drone either. I would inspect the rest of the frame for any queen cells made from worker brood, you could try to add another other frame of worker brood but if they are laying worker it may take 3 a week apart to get them back on track. 

I have seen splits do it as well even when they have worker brood they can make both, I'm very carefully to remove any q cells in or near drone brood when culling extra cells.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

When I added that comb to the hive, it was capped brood and some larvae in cells, I didn't see any capped drone brood. When I checked on it a few days later, I was worried that they seemed to be cleaning out the comb. Now I don't know what to think.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Is this the same frame you added to the swarm? The time frame will help tell you what's going on; what date was the swarm caught? What date did you add a frame of brood, what date did you take this picture?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

Yes, it is the same frame, I got the swarm May 13th, there was every indication that I had a queen by the way the bees acted - at least from all I'd read. I put them in a nuc for a week while I put together another hive. I gave them a jar of sugar water and 4 empty drawn combs and by the time I moved them, they had nearly filled the combs with honey so I was quite excited. But after moving them to their new hive, they have been unproductive, they have pretty much refused the jars of sugar water I put in the hive, I've switched them out so they didn't get stale. They have not drawn any comb of their own and are depleting the honey sources they made while in the nuc.

I put this bar of capped brood with some larve about the middle of July so that is the timetable. As I said, I don't remember any drone brood on this bar of comb, last night I went over to see what was going on, I swear I see a few cells of capped brood and I see some larve. I'm going back today with my camera with the macro lens and see if I can't get better pictures to post to show what is going on.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

I've never been a big fan of queen cells surrounded by drone brood.

Hope it works out for you. But a frame put in in mid-July should have a queen mating or getting ready to by now. That cell looks too new to me to have been drawn from something put in mid-July.


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## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

jwcarlson said:


> I've never been a big fan of queen cells surrounded by drone brood.


Why.....? Just curious.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

It's so muggy here today, my lens kept fogging up but I think this is capped brood, near the queen cell. Since there was one uncapped cell close to the other, could that mean I do have a working queen? I hope someone can see this well enough to verify for me.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

mailmam said:


> It's so muggy here today, my lens kept fogging up but I think this is capped brood, near the queen cell. Since there was one uncapped cell close to the other, could that mean I do have a working queen? I hope someone can see this well enough to verify for me.


Looks like capped honey to me. When they cap over honey in what was formerly brood the results can look a lot like capped brood.



Aroc said:


> Why.....? Just curious.


Can you guess? I ask simply to make you think critically about it.











What are the odds of an emergency cell started from cells surrounded with drone brood is coming from a fertilized egg?
If it's a swarm or supercedure cell that's a different story. But emergency cell... not so good.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

They do have some capped honey in the same comb and it looks different. But I will admit that the capped brood in my other hives is darker than this.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

mailmam said:


> They do have some capped honey in the same comb and it looks different. But I will admit that the capped brood in my other hives is darker than this.


I'd bet money it's honey. See how they're sunken and they look less "airy". When in doubt uncap it and see. Are there any cells with eggs? Multiple eggs? ESPECIALLY in drone sized cells. Or cells not drawn to full depth yet.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

I look and look and I never can see eggs, in any of my comb, I even took a magnifying glass, I think my eyes are not good enough. And I didn't realize there are difference in the size of cells.


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## bibbster (Jun 10, 2016)

mailmam said:


> I look and look and I never can see eggs, in any of my comb, I even took a magnifying glass, I think my eyes are not good enough. And I didn't realize there are difference in the size of cells.


Do you have someone nearby that keeps bees that may be able to take a look with you? My mentor pointed out eggs in a new hive we set up, and now that I've actually seen an egg in a cell they are easy to spot on my own.

Though I'm new to beekeeping, I do see drone brood cells capped (in the red circles), and the queen cup that is uncapped (in the yellow circle)


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Sounds like you had a queen in the hive, it did good and filled hive with honey then swarmed, failed to raise a new queen and is now a laying worker hive. 

My guess is the open q cell circled in yellow also has a drone larva.

If you have a good population of bees I might add another frame of worker brood with eggs and young larva on it. By doing this you might deplete a queen right hive of the resources it needs to prepare for winter.


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