"Tom Elliott" 'this 7 day period' ...... I have never seen or even read
> of any sort of cell that would be left open for 7 days.  I have used a 4
> day test  quite successfully.  Where do you come up with a cell age at
> sealing of over 7 days?'

I don't.  We are all agreed , I would expect , that the periods for a queen
are 3/5/7 for eggs/larva/pupa (and 3/6/12 for a worker).  I know those are
approximations but easy to remember and good enough for bee management I
reckon.

All I have been saying is that if a queen cell is unsealed 7 days after the
frame was isolated then the cell must have been started over a cell that
contained at that time an egg only 1 day old.  As a good queen would be
produced provided feeding started within 1 day of the egg hatching, the bees
have had at least 3 days to select that cell for queen raising .  Seems a
safe margin to me against the risk of an over-age larva being selected -
which is where this theme started.

Agreed, queen cells can be selected at 4 days after isolating - but any
cells then unsealed could include those where the larva was already 1 day
old at the time the frame was isolated - and if it took the bees a bit of
time to work out they were queenless and get going, the oldest of those
cells could be questionable.

Why 7 days and not say 6, which would also be completely safe?  Well, for
most of my life I was a weekend beekeeper .......and in retirement it is
stilll convenient to do my rounds on regular days of the week.  I do however
accept a well-made cell even if found sealed after 7 days if it lies within
a patch of worker brood that is still unsealed, implying that patch of eggs
hatched only 6 days earlier and the queen cell was sealed over only within
the last 24 hours.  So that cell is,  in effect, being selected when 6 days
old.

Hope all these numbers do not confuse.

Robin Dartington

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