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Queen cells <br /> • Our best advice for new beekeepers concerned with the appearance of queen cells is: When in doubt, do <br /> nothing. Honey bees know best how to take care of their queen and colony issues, so often it is best to let <br /> them work things out on their own. Our next best advice is to find an experienced beekeeper to help you. <br /> A colony may rear a new queen under one of three impulses. Please refer to the section on "Queen Cells" in <br /> the main body of this manual for more details; the following is a quick summary: <br /> 1. Swarming is usually a sign of hive congestion and in nature is the mechanism by which a colony <br /> reproduces. Numerous queen cells are found often on the edges of the brood nest in May or June and <br /> the colony will be crowded with bees. You may or may not observe eggs because right before swarming <br /> the queen stops laying eggs. When colonies have the impulse to swarm and many queen cells are <br /> observed, destroying queen cells will only delay them from swarming, as the bees simply rear more <br /> queens. If a colony has already swarmed, destroying the queen cells leaves them without a new queen. <br /> 2. Supersedure occurs when the queen is failing: the sperm in her spermatheca is depleted and/ <br /> or dead, or she is damaged or diseased. The bees sense that the queen is failing and start raising <br /> queens. Supersedure queen cells can be found both on the face and lower edge of the combs.A <br /> supersedure event can happen any time from April through September. The original queen is usually <br /> present and laying eggs while the bees rear a new queen. Sometimes the egg-laying pattern of an old <br /> queen is haphazard and the colony may be weak. Other times, her egg-laying pattern seems adequate <br /> to the beekeeper but apparently not to the bees. <br /> 3. Emergency queen rearing occurs when the queen is suddenly removed or killed (often accidentally <br /> by the beekeeper). When the workers sense that their queen is missing, they begin rearing new <br /> queens. Because it will be a few days after their queen was killed that the workers start rearing new <br /> queens, they will use the youngest larvae available (as opposed to freshly laid eggs). <br /> • New beekeepers often destroy queen cells before they know the reason for their presence in the hive. In <br /> particular, new beekeepers often fret over the presence of queen cups (see Figure 14). The presence of these <br /> "play cups" do not indicate that the colony is trying to replace the queen. <br /> If a colony is rearing queens to supersede or replace an old or deceased queen, it is best to let the colony <br /> correct itself until you are more experienced. Remember that it may take 2-3 weeks for a new queen to <br /> develop, mate, and begin laying eggs (Figure 15). Patience is required. Find an experienced beekeeper and <br /> ask for help. <br /> Drone layers <br /> A drone layer is a queen that has run out of live sperm in her spermatheca. She lays eggs but, as they are <br /> not fertilized within her, they are haploid and develop into drones. A drone laying queen may lay her drone- <br /> destined eggs in worker cells, one egg per cell, but the drone larva outgrows the cell as he develops. The <br /> bees increase the length of the cells to accommodate the large drone larvae, and when the cells are sealed <br /> with wax, they are puffy rather than flush with the comb. Also, the brood pattern may be haphazard, with drone <br /> brood scattered helter-skelter around the combs. <br /> There are several remedies for this situation. <br /> 1. If the colony is populous, locate and remove the drone laying queen and introduce a new queen, <br /> using the slow-release method described in the section called -Slow Release Method" for Introducing a <br /> New Queen to a Queenless Colony.' <br /> 2. If the colony is weak and has no signs of disease, remove the drone laying queen and combine it on <br /> top of a strong, queenright colony using the below method of combining colonies with newspaper(see <br /> • below for instructions). <br /> 3. Let the colony go. The drones will mature and possibly mate with a virgin queen from another colony, <br /> sending their genes into a new generation. Eventually the colony will die with no workers to feed the <br /> developing drones. You may see drone brood that looks diseased, but they are often dying of neglect. <br /> Beekeeping in Northern Climates 77 <br />