queenless hive (from package)?

[CraigFromMA]

I installed two packages one on April 14 (C1) and one on April 21 (C2). I released the queen on C1 on April 16 but may have made a mistake (my first hive ever) and C2 on April 24 (the queen release went better on this one).

I have checked the hives several times. On April 26 C1 had 4-5 what looked to be queen supersedure cells, one of which was not capped and definitely had larvae in it. C2 had eggs on this same date and the queen was marked so easy to find. I have not found the queen on C1 ever.

I checked the hives again on May 5. C2 had 2-4 frames pretty much completely full of capped brood and the marked queen was still there doing her job. C1 had some capped honey/sugar syrup and lots of cells which seemed to be full or partially full of sugar syrup. I did not see any eggs, larva, capped brood in C1. There were still what looked to be 2-3 capped queen supersedure cells on one of the frames. I didn't look for a queen as I figured no capped brood pretty much told the story on that.

The bees in both hives seemed pretty calm but C1 does not seem to have the same amount of activity at the entrance as C2.

So now what do I do so that I can save hive C1?

[Fred Bee]

Sounds like C1 needs a new queen. Some would say to leave them alone and they will raise their own queen based on the fact that they have capped queen cells. Apparently your bees are trying to make a new queen, but your supersedure cells may not produce as good a queen as you want. I would think you should see evidence of the queen's presence by now...either by physically seeing the queen or eggs or larvae, etc. Some might suggest that you destroy the queen cells and order a new queen asap and introduce her. Good luck with whatever you decide. Let us know how it goes!