# Found Queen Cups during Inspection! Help!



## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

queen cups mean nothing I have hives that keep dozens year round


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

I think you may be jumping the gun so to speak a bit. The very first thing you need to do is determine if there were eggs/larva in those cups. You see bees will draw out empty queen cups just for fun. I find them all the time in my hives and they have NO intensions of swarming. Some bees just keep them around like that. 

Second thing you need to do is to find out if you even have a queen in the box. Verify eggs/larva in a normal brood pattern with NO eggs on cell walls or in corners of cells. 

For a hive to swarm there should be enough bees in that box till it's hard to see anything but bees. If you got both hives from the same place and they were of the same quality when you picked them up, and one is doing so much better than the other, you have a problem. That's the nice thing about having two hives.

Now for the fix. If you find no queen, or just want to give them a boost, take a frame you very young larva or eggs from the good hive, and place into this hive. Just make sure you don't take the queen with it. If your troubled hive has no queen, or she is failing, the bees will take the opportunity to make one from the eggs/larva you give them. Close them up, give them about 6 days and check to see if you find queen cells on the frame. If you do, let them do what's natural.


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## SciFiLover84 (Feb 13, 2015)

Thank you for the reassurance. I've only researched that queen cups come before swarming or superseding, so knowing that they can be built for fun is good to hear. Thus far I haven't been able to find the queen, so I will make that a priority at next inspection and really check eggs/larva laying. And the suggestion of moving a full frame over to help the weaker hive is a great idea.

I think I'll call up my mentor this week and ask for her assistance at next check, just to use some experienced eyes.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Sounds like a good plan of attack to me. Hope you find your queen and plenty of brood too. It always sucks finding out hives aren't right.


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## BeeMoose (Oct 19, 2013)

It a normal course of action for bees to build queen cups. I guess they have them in case they need them. I have seen dozens built and torn down over a season.

It is only a problem if you see larva inside or they make a queen cell from them.

Good luck.


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## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

drlonzo said:


> Sounds like a good plan of attack to me. Hope you find your queen and plenty of brood too. It always sucks finding out hives aren't right.


It also sucks to know that if you have no queen it takes 28 to 32 days before she lays eggs. Know that it takes 21 days for bees to emerge from the capped cells. 

Interesting thing... I went to a bee class this spring and Beekeeping 101. The instructor said bees only live 32 to 45 days..... Very interesting to prove that bees clearly live longer then that. (Yes, they winter, but I am talking non wintering)

Zak


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## SciFiLover84 (Feb 13, 2015)

Whelp, I went and did this week's inspection and wouldn't you know it, I found an egg in a queen cup. But it was in the other, stronger hive, not the weak one I saw the cups in last week. Found one or two empty queen cups in the weaker hive still, but not the half dozen I saw last week. I also thought I saw a fully formed queen cell around mid-frame up, so I pinched it.
It's so frustrating not knowing if the hive is trying to re-queen so they can swarm or just replace their current one!

Also, don't know if this is significant or not, but a frame that last week was full of capped brood and honey was completely empty this week. No brood, no honey. Could that mean the queen is gone and isn't laying eggs, hence the egg in the queen cup?


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## Arnie (Jan 30, 2014)

OK, you found a fully formed queen cell in your weak hive? That's the one you crushed? 
Did you determine that the hive has a queen before you destroyed the cell? 

And did the full frame that you saw was now empty come from the weak hive or the strong one?

If that weak hive has gone queenless they needed that queen cell to survive. Hopefully there is another one that you didn't find. 
I would give that hive a frame of open brood with eggs so they can raise a queen if they need to. You might need to feed them.

Without seeing what is going on in your strong hive it is hard to say why they have built queen cells with eggs. They might be wanting to supercede their queen . Around here the bees rarely swarm this late in the season but it is possible.

If they are strong enough give the weak hive a frame of sealed brood also. That will boost them.


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## SciFiLover84 (Feb 13, 2015)

Yes, I'm (85%) sure I saw the queen while doing inspection. I'm thinking I'll have her marked from now on to make it easier. :/
The full frame that is now empty was from the strong hive. The weak hive seems to be doing fine. I was planning on taking a frame of brood from the stronger hive and put it into the weaker one just to give them a boost, but once I saw the empty frame, I thought I should wait and see what's going on. But looks like I'll do some trading around in case I screw them over.

I have been feeding both hives since they arrived last month, so they have a steady food source.


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## thehackleguy (Jul 29, 2014)

SciFiLover84 said:


> Yes, I'm (85%) sure I saw the queen while doing inspection. I'm thinking I'll have her marked from now on to make it easier. :/


85% is not very good when looking for your queen! However.....follow the advice here and you will be good! If you don't find the queen or eggs/brood, give them a frame of eggs/young brood. If you find the queen but the hive is week give them a frame of capped brood. Good luck!


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

The frame that was capped, but is now empty was probably emerging brood. Since Queens lay many eggs daily, hopefully you will find more previously capped frames now empty in a continuous cycle.

Alex


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## lowhog (May 5, 2015)

Hi, With only 5 frames built out I'm thinking your queen doesn't have much room for laying. I have a slow building hive and I just started pumping the syrup and pollen to them so they can build cells and the queen has more room for laying eggs. Are you sure it was a queen cell you pinched or a drone cell? was the cell vertical or facing out? There is a good chance you have a good laying queen with no place to lay eggs.


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## SciFiLover84 (Feb 13, 2015)

New update:
The strong hive (the one that I pinched the queen cell of last week) now had 4 queen cups with larva, 1 queen cell that was almost closed and 1 completely closed queen cell. Soooooo.... I was planning to just leave them be(e) and let them do what they do (although if I understand, one should pinch all but 1 of the queen cells... should I do that instead?). I did notice the hive was very quiet and non-aggressive. Also notice no eggs, but some very young larva growing.

The second, weaker hive, had no queen cells anymore, but was extremely aggressive today. Also, I put in some beetle traps last week and found several bees on a nearby frame very dark and oily looking, like they had eaten the oil and were rotting alive. Normal? I have pictures if needed. The other hive didn't have anything like that. But anyway, back to the queen issue. Could the weaker hive be so aggressive due to not having a queen? I could take a frame from the other hive that has a queen already forming and put it in, just to be sure, as I couldn't find the queen this week.


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