Emergency Supercedure in Progress

[Aisha]

I did a good inspection of both supers today. No queen, no eggs, no larvae. :( No wonder I have 2 capped queen cells! What I thought were larvae were a few white, uncapped pupae heads.

My main question is: How likely are two capped queen cells to make a new, producing queen, assuming there are drones nearby for mating?

Should I purchase a new queen for insurance or just wait it out for 2 weeks see?

I have lots of capped worker brood, 2 med. supers brimming with live bees, and some honey. No thrumming noise from hive.

Based on white pupae with tinted eyes, my queen died or stopped laying about 13 - 14 days ago. Assuming the 2 new queen larvae were raised 10 days ago, I think my new queen(s) will emerge in one week, 8/11, and if successful with mating, I won't see eggs until around 8/16.

Wow. I am getting a crash course in everything really quickly!

[Aisha]

On second thought...is it possible my queen stopped laying because I stopped feeding them syrup?

Does laying eggs completely stop during a dearth?

Thanks.

[Brent Bean]

Sounds like the bees are correcting the problem on their own, leave them alone they have a lot of experience in the matter. The fact that you have two capped queen cells is a very good thing. Unless you keep molesting them and accidentally smash them, then you will have a problem.
Not feeding them would have no bearing on when they try to supersead the queen. leave them alone for two week then check back.
Egg laying may stop during nectar dearth depending on how sever it is and what race of bees you have. I had several hives of Russians and they would stop brood rearing at the slightest shortfall of nectar.

[Aisha]

Thanks, Brent. I'll wait and see what happens. I really want to keep my feral bee genetics as much as possible so I prefer a queen made from my girls.