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Earlier this week I checked a hive that had some supercedure cells that should have hatched. I couldn't find the old queen but I did find a beautiful fat black queen and the bees were fawning all over her and she actually had just started laying. I was pleased.
I also added a second deep.
A few minutes ago I check them for progress and cannot find the queen or any eggs but there is a lot of drone brood. There is normal looking drone cells (big bubble) and the other capped brood are raised more than usual, not as flat as my other hives. Are these early drone cells? As they grow in the cell do they build them up to the bubble shape? If so, then my pretty new supercedure queen is (was) a drone layer. I know I didn't squish her after I had checked them last. My issue is that the hive already has several queen cells made. These were made from the missing queen's eggs. Should I let them raise a queen from her eggs since she obviously wasn't any good or should I cut them out and give them a frame from my other hive to make a new queen from that? I don't think I have a laying worker, there are no eggs. They didn't let her lay much (about one frame total) I know the slightly raised cells were her's b/c I saw her lay in them.
A few minutes ago I check them for progress and cannot find the queen or any eggs but there is a lot of drone brood. There is normal looking drone cells (big bubble) and the other capped brood are raised more than usual, not as flat as my other hives. Are these early drone cells? As they grow in the cell do they build them up to the bubble shape? If so, then my pretty new supercedure queen is (was) a drone layer. I know I didn't squish her after I had checked them last. My issue is that the hive already has several queen cells made. These were made from the missing queen's eggs. Should I let them raise a queen from her eggs since she obviously wasn't any good or should I cut them out and give them a frame from my other hive to make a new queen from that? I don't think I have a laying worker, there are no eggs. They didn't let her lay much (about one frame total) I know the slightly raised cells were her's b/c I saw her lay in them.