A first for me today in my 4 years of beekeeping

[Bamabww]

I'm sure there have been others that I just didn't see but found my first queen "peanut" cell today. My mentor always said if you find one near the bottom of the foundation, they are planning to swarm. If it's up near the top, they are going to replace her with a new one. Where there was brood, it was very wide spred, not a tight consistent pattern at all. So, is this nearer the bottom or nearer the top? Are they in swarm mode or planning to overthrow the reigning queen?

This was the only one I found in my six hives while making my final full inspection prior to putting on the honey supers. It was exciting, very exciting to find it. I took 3 stings to the hand getting 4 pictures of which only two turned out suitable for viewing.  But it was worth it.

[Woody Roberts]

That's a supersedure in progress. Swarm cells tend to be very low and there's usually several of them. A hive has to be strong or crowded to start swarm prep. These don't appear to be either one.

[blueblood]

Hi Wayne!  Yeap, what Woody said.  My swarm cells have always been hanging pretty much off the bottom of the frame.  So, did your hand swell over your knuckles?  I loose my knuckles for a day if I get stung on the hand.

[LazyBkpr]

Yep!! I would also say supersedure and let them get on with it. If you don't want the bees making their own queen now is the time to put a new one in there.

[Yankee11]

Did you see any brood in the hive on the other frames?

[Bamabww]

Hi Wayne! So, did your hand swell over your knuckles?  I loose my knuckles for a day if I get stung on the hand.

Yeah, knuckles all gone and (duh!) I left my wedding ring on and it is very tight this morning. I took 3 benadryls and the itching is better. We're eating Easter lunch with the granddaughter at school today so I will have something to show off.

[Perry]

Looks like it has been polished on the end, getting ready to emerge.
My one big question though, is where is all the "other" brood that should be around this cell? Queen cells hatch in less time than regular worker cells, so this should have all kinds of other capped brood around it.
It's possible that this was one of a few stray eggs that the bees chose to work with, but it makes me wonder.

[Bamabww]

Did you see any brood in the hive on the other frames?

Very little and what was there was very scattered.

[Bamabww]

Looks like it has been polished on the end, getting ready to emerge.
My one big question though, is where is all the "other" brood that should be around this cell? Queen cells hatch in less time than regular worker cells, so this should have all kinds of other capped brood around it.
It's possible that this was one of a few stray eggs that the bees chose to work with, but it makes me wonder.

Yeah, that surprized me as well. There was very little brood anywhere but the population of the hive is booming. It was packed full of bees. In fact I was looking for a frame of brood of all ages to add to my "gourd" bees hive to give them a boost when I found this. When I removed it for the pictures the girls got very mad.

[Perry]

It is clearly not a swarm cell for all the reasons well stated above. Keep an eye on this one Wayne to make sure that it is viable. Give it time to hatch out and settle down before disturbing, but be prepared to throw another frame with eggs on it in if needed.

[barry42001]

well first off you really don't have a bunch of bees if  that frame is an indicator.  But with brood being as spotty as you have said, certainly explains the supersedure.

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[DonMcJr]

Looks like it has been polished on the end, getting ready to emerge.
My one big question though, is where is all the "other" brood that should be around this cell? Queen cells hatch in less time than regular worker cells, so this should have all kinds of other capped brood around it.
It's possible that this was one of a few stray eggs that the bees chose to work with, but it makes me wonder.

Perry I accidently hit report instead of Quote so if you get a hand slap I take it back!

I was thinking the same thing... it almost looks like I see a bunch of eggs in all the cells but from that pic it's hard to tell. Why would they build and cap the queen cells and not the other eggs?

[Perry]

It wouldn't be the first time I got my knuckles rapped. 
From those pics I can't tell if those re eggs or just reflection.
Just thinking about it, if a queen laid a bunch of eggs on that frame, and the bees then decide they want to replace her (for whatever reason), they alter the diet to create a queen. She should then emerge in 13 days, which would leave all the surrounding brood still capped for another 5 or 6 days. Where are those other capped worker cells? Maybe the failing queen wandered over to this frame and just laid 3 or 4 eggs, one of which they decided to rear a queen with, and that explains the queen cell and the 2 or 3 other capped worker cells, but that strikes me as unusual.

[iddee]

We have a Canadian moderator. I'll inform him he needs to reprimand Perry quite harshly.

[barry42001]

did anybody notice what appears to be a second queen cell middle left. It's open, but there.

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[Perry]

All I see is a queen cup on the bottom of the frame and a mushed drone cell on the side at the bottom. 

[Bamabww]

It wouldn't be the first time I got my knuckles rapped. 
From those pics I can't tell if those re eggs or just reflection.

When I saw the "peanut" I looked really good in the other cells but didn't see any eggs anywhere on that frame. Most had nectar / honey and some pollen.

[Jen]

I'm still learning this complicated queen thing. Could this be a queen cell that they just have ready in case they need to make a new queen?

[barry42001]

No Jen, the premature cells are the  cups, the drawn out queen cells are active with something in them.

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[brooksbeefarm]

I would put a frame of brood with eggs in now, just to help the population if nothing else. Jack