Beekeeping | What Are Drone Cells, Queen Cells & Worker Cells?

the biggest issue facing beekeepers when they first start out has always got to do with the queen is my queen alive is she still in there is she laying good how do i know if they're raising a new queen what does a queen cell look like how do i tell the difference between a queen cell and a drone cell kind of tough for a new beginner so today that's what we're going to tackle hey everybody thanks for joining me david burns with you for another beekeeping video if you find these videos giving you value and adding to your beekeeping endeavors give me a thumbs up and please subscribe to the channel let's get right into it today and jump in a hive i filmed some stuff back in the bee season so that i could show it during the winter time like now and i think you'll enjoy this today i'm going to show you a queen cell versus a drone cell and just how you know whether you have a swarm cell or a superseder cell let's jump right into it if you look at this frame like this all right just glancing do you see a queen cell probably not you might say okay let's see if there's any queen cells let's look at this frame nope don't see any queen cells i better get a queen right well let's dig a little deeper let me hold it i gotta move these uh beads out of my my way here so i can put my finger right there all right there now if i'm holding this do you see a queen cell yet well you have to use your other hand like this and start moving bees around and lo and behold look right there that is a queen cell and no she has not emerged yet so this is what tricks beekeepers they they fail to see that right there this is a drone an extended drone cell this is a queen cell now could there be others possibly nothing much there but you just almost have to take your finger and just start looking around most of these are just drone cells like right here see that's a drone cell it's not big enough look again how big this queen cell is right here larger it's not the biggest one in the world but it's what they're using nope drones so that's the only one i see right here so we're going to keep checking and see when she emerges and takes her mating flight and of course not yet so in six days after taking the queen out and selling her what can happen what should happen is they should find a fertilized egg and they should begin raising their own queen to replace the queen that i sold indeed they have look at that here again a beautiful queen cell right here and another one and another one and now you probably heard me say that if you have queen cells on the bottom half of the frame that is possible that could be they could get ready to swarm right not gonna happen they chose just to raise three new queens for insurance purposes because they i sold one and now they need to raise their own what i'm going to do here is let these get a little more mature since i know what day that they raised them they probably raised them on day 15 15 plus 16 i don't have to worry about them emerging until the end of the month right and so what i'm going to do probably around the 20th i'm going to start looking at them again i'm going to try to probably cut these out leave them one so i'll use these other two cells in another mating nook but i wanted you to see what these look like uh this one here for example not even capped over yet i don't know if you can see inside of it but if you can move out of the way b we're filming you can see some larva in there world jelly yup i can actually see the larvae down in there the queen larva she'll be a queen by the end of the month isn't that cool yep i hope this is uh helping you identify and this is just right here this is a cat brood from the queen was laying when i sold her she was a good layer we got these are three queen cells this is technically still called a cup even though it's more like a cell whether you're a long time beekeeper or you're just starting out in 2022 be sure and get the courage up to really keep an eye on your queen look for her health how well she's laying know the difference between a queen cell regular brood and a drone cell so you'll be able to distinguish whether or not your hive is raising a new queen or not and if they're not raising a new queen when they should be you'll have to intervene and purchase a mated queen and place that in there so i wanted to get this to you wanted to get this video in your hands to give you a little more knowledge on how to identify what's going on when you see queen cells a big thing to remember too those of you that are really experienced beekeepers this spring you can expect some swarms if the temperature continues to be warm like it is now all through winter a little warmer winter chances are your colony is going to be bigger and they have a bigger chance of swarming in the spring and you need to be able to do what i showed you in the video use your finger move the beads around see if you see swarm cells along the lower part of those frames well i appreciate you watching the video today thanks a lot look at this video this is one i made just a few days ago you got to watch this one because it answers a lot of questions that a lot of you are answering i took time to answer these questions for you be sure check this video out

Channel: David Burns

Views: 18,565

Keywords: Beekeeping, beekeeping 101, Beekeeping tips, beekeeping training, honey bees, how to inspect a hive, smoker, keeping a smoker going, smoker fuel, beekeeping classes, beekeeping basics, beekeeping for beginners, how to start beekeeping, why keep bees, save the bees, lighting a smoker, david burns beekeeping, varroa mite, when to start beekeeping, packages of bees, queen bee, where to buy a queen bee, bee suit, beekeeping business, drone brood, queen cells, worker brood

Id: pXyijU9vvfo

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 22 2021