Is this a queen cell (photo)?

[SmokeyBee]

I have two hives, both first year from a package. This is from the hive that doesn't seem to be doing much compared to the other. Less honey, less comb and less brood.

Is this a queen cell on this frame?

Thanks in advance - Smokey

[SmokeyBee]

Of course there happened to be bees crawling over what I wanted a picture of when the phone finally focused on it.  Second pic is a little better.

 

[Jen]

Hi Smokey, it's a queen cup at the moment. Without touching the cup, look inside and see if there is an egg in there.

Kinda looks like two queen cups being made there, that could turn into a queen cell, a little early to tell for sure.

[SmokeyBee]

Jen,

Thanks so much, I knew you would know... I can't understand why they would swarm. They have an entire deep that they've barely touched. There's plenty of room in there.

??

[Jen]

First! check back in a week and see if this cup is turning into a queen cell.

If it is, then it would more than likely be a supercedure cell. Which means either... the queen isn't present and they are making a new one, or they are replacing the queen that is in the hive. For some reason that we don't know, the bees may not be happy with the present queen, so they will make a new one.

But you should know that bee's make these cups all the time, like they are teaching the new bees how to do it. They build them then take them down. I'm in the habit of during an inspection, I look inside all of them and see if there is an egg or royal jelly. That tells me that the bees are up to something 

[SmokeyBee]

Will do!

The queen seems to be doing OK but not great. The laying pattern on the other hive is much larger with fewer holes.

[Jen]

This is a first year queen, sometimes it takes them awhile to 'get it'. I remember thinking the same thing as you so I posted the question on this forum. Perry encouraged me to be patient with new queens, and adding that if that slow queen makes it thru the winter they turn into laying machines. I have found that to be true

[Perry]

Great advice from Jen. Queen cups are made all the time, it's not until they are "loaded" that they become an issue.