[bobapfel]

Just examined my first box that I installed a few weeks ago. Bought a nuc and installed it into a 10 frame deep brood box. They've made what looks like a good amount of progress, laying new brood and producing plenty of new honey. Only problems were some hive beetles, irregular brood pattern, and 4 queen cells, one of which had a hole in the bottom (I understand this means the queen already hatched). What do I do about the queen cells? And what do they mean? Am I queenless? They weren't extra aggressive, but I didn't see a queen (I didn't look that hard though).:s

 

[standman]

If you have eggs, you have a queen. If you don't have eggs, you might be able to judge from the age of the uncapped larva to see when your queen stopped laying.

 

[bobapfel]

Thanks for the replies, i'll keep an eye on them.