Thursday, May 31, 2012

Finishing Queencells

This article is based on conditions in the UK. It states that a strong stock can finish one or two frames of queens and to not overload the stock or else some queen cells will be undernourished. The cells only need to be in the starter colonies for 24 hours and then are moved to the finisher colonies. Feed the finisher colonies with honey diluted with water so they can feed the queen cells. Make sure not to feed to much and let the diluted honey ferment. Also make sure to hold the frames with queen cells on them up right and stable. Place them in the uppermost box with a queen excluder between the other boxes so the queen stays bellow. Make sure there is lots of pollen with a central frame of young brood. If repeating the process in the same colony, replace the centre frame with another frame with brood from the bottom box or from another colony. Once the cells have been sealed they can be removed at any time and put in an incubator or left in mating nucs for 24 to 48 hours.
This reading gave a very detailed description on how to finish the queen cells yet I am still slightly confused. If so many queen cells are being produced in the colony, would that not cause the queen bee to swarm? Having read this, I have a better understanding as to how queen cells work, yet it left me with that main question.

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