Hi all,

Today for the first time in my humble 2 years of beekeeping, I finially hear
what I believe is the queen piping!! I've heard recording posted on the
internet, but this is the first time I heard it from a hive.

What a beautiful, haunting sound!

I've looked in the archives on Bee-L about piping and found a lot of info-
very confusing...Soo, I'm asking if some of the more expreinced members
would mind commenting on a few question I have.

I opened the piping hive, to find over a half a dozen queen cells, all
capped!  The piping was still coming from the hive, even as I removed,
examined and replaced the frames.  The sound seemed to move about in the 2
broad box hive.

Many questions are dancing in my head!!!

Why is the existing queen piping (is it a queen??)?

If I have a laying queen,(I see larvae) why the queen cells!? (the cells are
in the center and on the bottom edge of the frames)?

There is plenty of room in the hive, it was started from a 3-4 lb package
with a painted queen on April 28th, I could not find her, but I hear the
piping!

But was it from the original queen?

So why swarm or supersede?

Can queens in cells pipe?

Can workers be making this haunting sound?

Should I split this hive dividing the capped queen cells to stop a swarm?

Enough questions.....

The piping is an interesting and very beautiful sound; reminds me of  whale
song!!
A joy to hear.


Thanks

Don
Mohegan Lake, NY

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