Thanks again all of you for all the info. I would like to split this hive. I have some cardboard nuc boxes on hand. I could use 1 or 2 of them to get one or two splits. The queen cells are on 3 different frames. I can transfer them to permanent hive boxes later when they get situated and I can verify there is a mated queen. My guess is a few weeks down the road.
When the first queen hatches, does it open the other queen cells to kill off the competition or does she wait till they hatch from their queen cell? It matters when deciding if I want to harvest a queen to replace another dud queen.
It depends, most of the time the first queen out will open the side of the other queen cells and sting the queen before she emerges. Sometime they emerge at the same time as they were from same day eggs, then they may fight or 1 may leave with a swarm. you can try to cut one off and stick it into the dud hive, if "should" result in supercedure. for me , to replace the dud queen, I would do your cardboard nuc box hatch, mate, plan, then decide on which one goes where. Often when I do 4 hatches I get 2 or 3 good queens sometimes they get lost, do not mate well can't fly, bad weather, etc. So if it were me, I would make as many NUCs as you can. Leave the dud queen lay until you have a "laying replacement" . Then newspaper add the new queen on top the Dud queen hive on top 2 Queen Excluders, leave for 2 weeks, then inspect, leave the excluder on the bottom on the new queen box, separate them in between excluders, set the top one on the lid, with excluder under it, IE know she stays in there. IMPORTANT verify the new queen is laying still in the top, If yes, find the bottom dud queen, kill her, recombine the whole hive with out the excluders.
Benefits:
Old queen continues to lay until the new one in mated and starts laying (up to 2 weeks) and 2 more after combine
newspaper add confirms the new queen is accepted by the "hive" before the dud queen is killed.
2 excluders keep the queens separate, until you confirm the acceptance and success of your new queen, with 1 excluder they could fight on it and sting each other thru it killing both of them.
sounds complicated but is not. I like it and "coast" new queens on top of other hives a lot. Good way to go from 3 frames of bees to 10 with a new queen, smaller step replacement method, you can change your mind pull the top box and have increase.
Also if you suddenly have a ripe cell or a friend offers a queen. You can drop the new queen onto the bottom board, add the supers back, move the old/dud queen away(split) most of the bees go to the old location, beefing up the new queen. you then kill the old/dud and offer the ripe cell or new queen to the dud queen brood nest.
this leaves options and at times you may shift and try something else.
or coast 1 queen for 2 weeks, move the dud away, then coast the other, then kill the dud effectively splitting the dud queen hive into your 2 new queens, and getting 7-10 thousands more eggs from the dud, for the month you play with this.
or , or , you get the point so many ways so little time
GG