Recently one of my hives superseded a failing queen. When I first noticed there were several queen cells over a few frames. I checked on them last week when they were due to emerge, and found all but 2 had been taken down from the sides.
I'm worried that the old queen has been tearing down these cells, as I have heard no piping whatsoever from the hive from emerged virgins. I believe she is still in the hive as I saw a queen that looked too large to be a virgin (my queen was unmarked).
So my question is whether this is a possibility and if there is any action I should take, or I should just give them some more time in the hope there is indeed a new queen in there?
I would love to hear one pipe, but I never have. So I can't imagine that not hearing piping is a sign that you can count on. The bees know what they are doing, if they are supersededing they won't let the old queen tear the cells down. More likely they either changed their minds, or the first virgin out tore the sides out of the other cells.