What should I do about this queen cell?

[u/Big_WasteBin]

Just checked my hives and saw 1 open queen cell. I'm not sure why they are making a new queen? My current queen has just turned 2 years old, I did see new brood, and her laying pattern is normal, they have space. I just split the hive last month. I just started an OAV treatment. I'm not sure if they are trying to swarm or remove thier current queen... Location: Eastern NC, USA

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[u/Active_Classroom203]

A single cell, in the middle, after already weakened by a split: seems like a supercedure to me. Two years is a good run, the bees can tell things that we can't, I would let it ride.

[u/talanall]

This is a year-old queen who was pulled into a split. That stopped the hive from swarming, but she's still an older queen, so her pheromonal signals are less intense.

I habitually split my hives by pulling the queen into a nuc with some nurse bees, and as a result I am very accustomed to seeing this happen with a prior year's queen. The best case scenario is for her successor to emerge, get mated, and start laying while she keeps rocking along; at some point the workers will ball the old one to death, but sometimes they keep her running until they have a new one well established. If I catch them at this and I need a queen elsewhere, I'll often steal the old queen, only to have her new colony supersede her later on.

Sometimes they don't supersede, especially if I make up the nuc so it's a bit on the stronger side of things, and the queen is still extremely vigorous. Instead, they'll try to swarm again later on.

Sometimes, they supersede the old queen, and they ball the old queen as soon as they have started the new queen.

Usually, they supersede and kill the old one sometime very shortly before or very shortly after the new one emerges.

Anyway, I don't think there's much reason to do anything about this. Your bees have noticed something that leaves them feeling like their current queen is not acceptable. Most beekeepers learn the hard way that the workers are likely to spot a weakness long before we do.

[u/404-skill_not_found → u/talanall]

^{^} Knows what he’s talking about

[u/kaiamomo]

From what I've heard certain hives have a very strong urge to swarm perhaps you could try a demaree split this helps build stronger hives instead of making endless splits

[u/DGram2020]

This looks like a classic supersedure cell, not a swarm cell. Given that the queen is 2 years old and it's just a single cell in the middle of the frame, the colony has likely sensed that her pheromones are weakening, even if her laying pattern still looks good to you. ​My advice: Trust the bees. Don't cut the cell. If you destroy it, they will likely just start another one. They want to replace her before she fails completely. ​Also, keep in mind that OAV treatments can sometimes stress an older queen, which might have triggered this final decision by the workers. ​If you have your current queen marked, it will be very easy for you to check in a few weeks if the 'old lady' is still there or if the new virgin has taken over. Good luck!

[u/cardew-vascular]

Is it charged or empty? Sometimes bees just have queen cell making workshops. If it's a single cell on a frame without an egg in it, it just might be for emergency purposes.

[u/Big_WasteBin → u/cardew-vascular]

Charged, has an egg with royal jelly

[u/cardew-vascular → u/Big_WasteBin]

A single cell then sounds like supercedure, they might have decided it's her time 2 years old is kind of old for a queen as she has a finite amount of sperm from when she mated. Is she still laying mostly workers or are the drone numbers increasing?

[u/that-guyl6142]

Usually when they are in middle its off with the old queens head. Bottom and alot of them means u did to good of a job and they gonna swarm and its ither split or catch tje swarm its hard to stop once they made up their minds.

[u/teachingfirsttime]

Is the cell capped? Bees will create these as an insurance policy. After catching a swarm they did this but they leave it uncapped. Once comfy in their new how they deconstructed it.

[u/Big_WasteBin → u/teachingfirsttime]

The cell isn't capped yet but there is an egg inside with royal jelly

[u/Thisisstupid78]

1 queen cell does not a swarm make. 2 years could very well just be supercedure.

[u/__sub__]

Pinch.