Photo thread: empty queen cups vs charged swarm cells — what actually made you close the hive and act
After a near-miss last month I've been photographing every cup and cell I find, and I think a proper visual thread would help a lot of second-years. Posting mine: hive 1 has six dry play cups on the bottom bars that have sat there empty since April — bees polish them, nothing else ever happens. Hive 3 last month had cups that looked identical from the outside, but tipping them up showed a fat larva swimming in royal jelly in three of them. Six days later they'd have been capped and I'd have been watching my bees leave over the hedge.
So: post yours, and tell me the honest trigger. Egg in a cup — act or watch? Or do you wait for a larva and jelly? What's your line?
#swarm-cells#queen-cups#inspection
▲ 21 votes💬 4 replies
4 replies
PerthshireBees · Jun 17, 2026
Good thread. My line: dry cups mean nothing, I'd tear down half my apiary weekly otherwise. An egg in a cup gets a note in the book and a re-check in 3-4 days — eggs in cups sometimes get pulled again. A LARVA sitting in a pool of royal jelly is a charged cell and that's the fire alarm: they've decided. That day I make up a nuc or do an artificial swarm, not next weekend.
CorkBeeRon · Jun 17, 2026
Same line as PerthshireBees, with one addition: count and position matter. One or two charged cells mid-face on one frame, in a hive that's been quiet — I look hard for the old queen first, could be supersedure. A dozen charged cells along the bottom bars of several frames in a boiling colony is swarm prep, no ambiguity. Cups alone I ignore completely and have for twelve years.
mn_newbee · Jun 17, 2026
First year here, this thread is gold. Question — how do you check inside a cup without wrecking it? I'm scared to tip a frame in case there IS a queen larva in there and I dump the jelly out.
DevonBees_Em · Jun 18, 2026
mn_newbee — hold the frame vertical, sun or torch over your shoulder, and look up into the cup from below; you rarely need to tilt past 45°. Larvae don't fall out of jelly, it's sticky like thick cream. And thanks both — 'charged cell = act today' matches my near-miss exactly.