# Moving Queen Cells



## sfisher (Sep 22, 2009)

I placed a frame with eggs and uncapped larve into a queenless nuc on Sunday. 
1)What day can I check for queencells?
2)If I have more than 1 queen cell, on what day can I move a cell to another nuc?
3)On what days should I not disturb the queen cells?
Thanks for your help Steve


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

You can check them in 2 days without much damage, then leave them alone until 10 days after you made the split. At that time you can gently cut out queen cells. No jolting or turning them upside down or anything like that. Within the first two days they are not so vulnerable, and on day ten the pupa is more formed and stable in the cell. She will normally emerge on day 11 or 12, sometimes day 13 if the weather is cool. Best of luck!


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## MethowKraig (Aug 21, 2011)

Ray,

Emerging on day 11 would mean they picked 5 day old larvae for the queen cells. 
That seems pretty old.

Is this typical? 

- "Met How" Kraig


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## Beezly (Jun 25, 2011)

MetHow, Day 11 from the time the split is made will actually be day 15. they will choose freshly hatched eggs to start the queen, so this is day 4 (3 as eggs then on day 4 hatch). they will usually start queencells the same day as split is made. 11 more is 15, 12 is 16 etc...
Please correct me Ray if i am misinterpreting your advice.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Queen cells in hot weather will emerge earlier, queen cells in cold weather can emerge a day late. It's normally, the average, for them to emerge on day 12, which gives 16 days from egg as you posted above.


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## sfisher (Sep 22, 2009)

Ray so then are you saying that if I gave the frame with eggs and uncapped larve to them on Sunday that I can check them on that Saturday or Tuesday. I dont understand if you are adding 4 days on to the 2 days or what? 
Say for instance that I gave a queenless nuc a frame of eggs and uncapped brood on Sunday August 1st, what days would it be safe to check for queen cells.
And what days would it be safe to move queen cells to another nuc.
Please use days and dates. Thanks Steve


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## Keth Comollo (Nov 4, 2011)

You can check them in two days to see if they have started building cells but they won't be capped. At 48 hours people are reporting no problems and good acceptance of uncapped queen cells being transferred to nucs. Cut them out and make sure the larva doesn't fall out and put it in a nuc. If they are already in the nuc you want them in then let them be.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

OK, August 1 you put a frame of eggs in a cell builder nuc.

on Aug 3 you check for cells started.
You can cut them out then, and distribute, if you want. They are still stable then as they are still just a worm in a bath of jelly. I myself don't like to distribute them at that time as it is too much downtime without brood production.

On Aug 6 the cells should be capped, at this time they are very fragile, don't mess with them.

On Aug 11, the pupas have developed enough to be more stable, this is when I cut them out and distribute to nucs. I could probably wait till Aug 12, but as I said above, sometimes in hot weather they emerge early and I don't wanna take the chance of an early emerger destroying the rest of the cells.

Some of when you do things is management preference. Distribute either on Aug 3 or 4, as they are still stable worms in jelly, or wait until Aug 11 when they are more stable capped cells.

Hope this helps.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

OK, I think i get where some of your confusion is.
When you put in a frame of eggs, there will aslo be just hatching eggs and young larva on the frame. They will start out making cells from the just hatched larva. They will also be making more cells as other eggs start hatching as well. So there is a time over lap here. Hope this helps


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## sfisher (Sep 22, 2009)

Thanks everone I got it, Ray you can disregaurd the pm if you want, Thanks again.


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