[ramdino]

I got a colony that has always had tons of bees. I found swarm cells and supercedure cells a few weeks ago so I split them talking all the swarm cells and leaving two supercedure cells. Then this week They swarmed twice and I caught them and moved them to a different yard in 5 frame Nucs. I went back into the original colony today and there are lots of bees and stores. Got into the brood box and there are lots of bees, 2.5 frames of caped brood but no open brood or eggs that I can tell. I run 10 frames. When I split them I put in 4 frames of foundation. They have not drawn any of the foundation. All the foundation is on one side of the box. Today I found 2 swarm cells and 3 supercedure cells. I tore out all but one supercedure cell. I have a mated queen coming Monday. Should I put her in this hive or let the supercedure hatch or bring a frame of eggs from another colony or is this one a goner.

 

[jjhuntsalot]

I am surely no expert but did you inspect the supercedure cells you left was one open and the other damaged. Could the third queen have been out on her mating flight. the first swarm was the old queen and the second one being the first emerged queen. Id check back in a few days and see if there are newly laid eggs, Although you did say there was a new supercedure cell so it is probably a good bet that the hive was queenless. I think Id want the old queens genetics and let the new queen emerge and mate. If there is still an abundance of nurse bees on the brood you can always make a nuc out of her and place the bought queen in the hive. Just my opinion though.

 

[ramdino]

I am surely no expert but did you inspect the supercedure cells you left was one open and the other damaged. Could the third queen have been out on her mating flight. the first swarm was the old queen and the second one being the first emerged queen. Id check back in a few days and see if there are newly laid eggs, Although you did say there was a new supercedure cell so it is probably a good bet that the hive was queenless. I think Id want the old queens genetics and let the new queen emerge and mate. If there is still an abundance of nurse bees on the brood you can always make a nuc out of her and place the bought queen in the hive. Just my opinion though.

I think the SS cell is old and about ready to hatch. It was brown on the end and looked old. There was a SS open but the one I left was closed. The other 2 I tore out were closed. I am gonna wait a few days to see if the SS hatches. If I don't see eggs and open brood in a week I'll decide then on requeening. Sound reasonable?