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I split a hive on Monday, and took 3 deep frames of mixed brood, and two frames of mixed brood/resources. I ordered a VSH queen, and I received the queen a day later than I anticipated and installed her 48 hours after the initial split. I didn't have time to go frame by frame in the queenless colony to check for queen cells, because it started pouring the rain. However I did get halfway through. Yesterday, (5days) I went back in to remove the cage, and finish my inspection. I found one emergency queen cell, but did not destroy it. I didn't find the new queen on the combs during the second inspection (but I didn't look too hard either)
Obviously they started the queen rearing process while they were queenless. Did I make a mistake by not destroying the queen cell? Will the workers destroy the queen cell, or is swarm imminent with my new queen? What would you do?
Obviously they started the queen rearing process while they were queenless. Did I make a mistake by not destroying the queen cell? Will the workers destroy the queen cell, or is swarm imminent with my new queen? What would you do?