# Capped Queen Cells



## AllenL (Feb 22, 2012)

Hello All,

I checked my hives yesterday and I found about 6 capped queen cells. I am in south central pa and I believe that the main hive is going to swarm and unless I could pull of an artificial swarm which I couldnt because I could not find the queen. It appeared that all of the bees were still in the hive as of yesterday. I didnt really know what to do but I took two frames with two good capped queen cells and put them in a 5 frame deep NUC. I put in a frame of honey and another frame of brood and moved it to another bee yard. I dont know if I did this right or not but I would at least like to take this as a learning opportunity and if anyone could tell me how I should have handled it, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you!


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## bamindy (Apr 14, 2009)

Sounds like you are on your way to a new hive of bees. I had the same "problem" yesterday. One of my larger hives had three frames with multiple queen cells so I made three nucs. I didn't bother moving them to another yard. I sealed the bees in the nucs and will release them later today. Usually putting them on lock down for about a day will force them to re-orient themselves to the new location. If you stocked the nuc with a majority of nurse bees, they won't leave anyway.


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## AllenL (Feb 22, 2012)

bamindy said:


> Sounds like you are on your way to a new hive of bees. I had the same "problem" yesterday. One of my larger hives had three frames with multiple queen cells so I made three nucs. I didn't bother moving them to another yard. I sealed the bees in the nucs and will release them later today. Usually putting them on lock down for about a day will force them to re-orient themselves to the new location. If you stocked the nuc with a majority of nurse bees, they won't leave anyway.


Thanks Bamindy, I appreciate the reassurance. Do I need to do anything since i put multiple capped queen cells in the same NUC?


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## Beeonefarms (Nov 22, 2013)

How dare you ... do you realize you are taking money from the bee package, nuc sellers of america.. It has been proven time and time again. Beekeepers can not successfully raise their own stock ever..( sarcasm off )
Way to go ... Cha ching...


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

NOPE, the first vigin queen to emerge will kill out the other cells. Or if both emerges at the same time they may battle it out and one will win the hive. Sometimes people will do this when using grafted queen cells to just to make sure they have a good one in the box.


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## Tim KS (May 9, 2014)

This sounds great.....I hope to do the same in my future days as a new keeper (got my first hive going just a month ago). But AllenL, I have question for you. What did you put back in place of the three frames you removed from the first hive.....empty frames of foundation? ...and were they placed in the same locations as those removed?
Inquiring minds want to know the details. Thanks.


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## AllenL (Feb 22, 2012)

Thanks all! My first time trying and I am hoping for the best. Glad to hear such great feedback!


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## AllenL (Feb 22, 2012)

Tim KS said:


> This sounds great.....I hope to do the same in my future days as a new keeper (got my first hive going just a month ago). But AllenL, I have question for you. What did you put back in place of the three frames you removed from the first hive.....empty frames of foundation? ...and were they placed in the same locations as those removed?
> Inquiring minds want to know the details. Thanks.


Tim,

Again I dont know if i did this right but I put in empty frames of foundation in a chimney pattern for the 3 frames of brood that were taken. The honey was taken from the end and i placed that frame there. I would open it up to the group because again I am not sure if I did this correctly.


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## Tim KS (May 9, 2014)

Allen, I've been doing some reading on another forum since asking the question. I ran across a similar article that suggests that if you removed three center frames of brood, they should be replaced as such......spread the remaining brood and alternate empty frames with the brood & honey such as...... honey, honey, new, brood, new, brood, new, honey, new, honey (in a 10 frame box).

Sounds good to me...


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## pastornater (Mar 15, 2014)

I have just one capped queen cell in my hive, should I split to nucs as well?


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## Tim KS (May 9, 2014)

Pastornater, I'm new to beekeeping myself, so I shouldn't be answering your question. BUT, if it were me with a capped QC, I would split it....just make sure your queen & the capped cell end up in different boxes.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

pastornater said:


> I have just one capped queen cell in my hive, should I split to nucs as well?


The first thing you should do is figure out what type of Queen Cell it is. Is it a swarm cell or a supersedure cell or even an emergency cell. Then from there decide as to what your direction will be. 
#1. Find the current queen. If no queen exists then the cell is an emergency cell if located on the sides of the frame. If queen is found, then it may be a supersedure cell. Does the current queen have a good laying pattern? If not, they want to requeen, you should let them.
#2. If the queen is there, and the cell is capped and lower on the frame near the bottom or on the bottom bar, and the bees are backfilling the broodnest with honey, it is likely a swarm cell. At that point, it is clear that you should do a split with the OLD queen taking her and several frames of brood/bees to another box and letting the swarm cell hatch in the original box.


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