Clare Densley Beekeeper, Buckfast Abbey, Devon


I have been keeping bees since 1992 and now look aſter the bees at Buckfast Abbey with my friend and colleague Martin Hann. When I first


worked at the Abbey as an assistant beekeeper, there were 17 different apiaries. We now manage about 30 colonies, mainly for teaching purposes.


With luck, you will manage some enlightening looks inside your colony this month. Roger Paterson made an excellent suggestion in ‘Driſting’ (February) when he included a camera (or good-quality phone- camera) in his list of tools. It is a great way to record what you see, and it means that you can ask for a second opinion about anything which you are unsure about.


April can be a time when some of our colonies start to mature and come of age. The dandelion and willow will have provided the protein and carbs for the growth of the colony, which, once it has sufficient workers and worker brood, will start to produce drone brood, queen cups, and even some queen cells.


When I had my first bees, I was absolutely petrified about discovering queen cells in my colony. I feared them because I saw swarming as an inevitable consequence, and even though I had read, re-read and writen them out as a flow chart, I still couldn’t get my head around the Pagden method of swarm control. I really didn’t have a Scooby-Doo about why the bees made


queen cells, or what queen cups were about, or why the bees wanted to swarm at all. All I worried about was how it was going to affect me – and I was definitely going to get it all wrong and lose my bees.


Now if I see a queen cell, I am calm and nicely excited at the same time. The first thing I try to work out is why the bees are making them. Swarming is just one of the reasons for their appearance. Supersedure is another (replacement of the queen without swarming). Emergency cells may appear if your queen has been lost altogether. The trick is to try to work out which scenario is playing out before we interfere or leave them alone to sort it out for themselves.


What makes the bees start queen cells?


It’s probably more appropriate to ask, “What stops them from making them?” The superorganism has evolved to replace its queen if anything should happen to her, or she becomes no longer fit for purpose – since, without her, the colony is doomed.


The survival mechanism works like this: the bees have an innate ‘desire’ to make a new queen most of the time, but the existing one supresses this urge with her pheromone secretions. This complex mix of chemicals is oſten dubbed queen substance. This is not just a general aroma that waſts around the hive. Some of her pheromones are detected by smell, but most are secreted as an oily substance which she herself spreads over her body through grooming. The young bees which gather around her lick and touch her with their antennae and legs (palpating) and


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pass this on to other bees through food sharing and more physical contact. It keeps on being distributed in this way by more and more bees, but, as it does, the portions become smaller and less potent. The levels are topped up continuously, but subtle shiſts in the balance of the colony can alter these, and queen cups may be initiated.


Sometimes the pheromone levels plateau and ‘play cups’ are all that you will see in your colony for most of the season. If there is a further dip in the bees’ perception of queen substance, the cups will be taken to the next stage and be polished and made ready for the queen to lay. I usually check out any fresh-looking queen cups with the sharp end of my hive tool. The object is not to remove them, but just to have a peek inside to see if they are being ‘prepped’. If I see a dull, slightly textured inner surface, I know that they are play cups. I will make a note if they start to look a bit shiny or sweaty inside, but unless they are egged or have royal jelly in the base, I don’t worry about them.


There are several ways by which queen substance can become less potent.


• The queen is older and her pheromones are fading. This can happen with a poorly mated queen too.


• The population of the colony is growing so that each bee receives a smaller share of the substance.


• The hive is too crowded and so the pheromones cannot be passed around very efficiently.


• A combination of some or all of these.


April may seem a bit early to see queen cells, but I have had bees swarm in mid-


Bee Craſt April 2020


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