[IowaBeeHaver]

How long does it take the girls to make a supercedure cell and hatch it. One of my hives went queenless and I found a cell that looks like it may have been a hatched supercedure. I am talking shortest case scenario. I went in 9 days ago and there were eggs, larvae and capped brood. Today there were no eggs and only capped brood. Is it possible they used one of the larvae, capped it, and hatched it in 9 days? I currently plan on waiting to see if a mated queen comes back, but I would rather not wait too long if this isn't possible.

 

[crofter]

Yes it would be possible if it were a supercedure cell because the queen could be still laying in some fashion after the bees have started raising a supercedure queen cell.

If the cell building was induced by an emergency (queen killed) the 9 day time frame would be virtually impossible and it would require the workers to have started converting a three or four day old larvae which is highly unlikely when there were eggs available.

I think the most likely case is that it was a supercedure and you have a virgin or mated queen not yet started laying. The time frame you indicate means you are not at risk of laying workers developing for a couple of weeks. Introducing a queen now would be her death sentence. If you had another colony you could put in a frame with eggs and fresh larvae to test them. If they start cells within 3 days, they were queenless. If they continue incubating and feeding them,you have a queen present.

 

[IowaBeeHaver]

I plan to check again in a week and see how it looks. If there's no sign of a queen then I'll add a frame with eggs and open brood. Thank you for your input!

 

[beemandan]

I plan to check again in a week and see how it looks. If there's no sign of a queen then I'll add a frame with eggs and open brood. Thank you for your input!

Adding a frame with eggs and open brood is fine. On the other hand 16 days (9 days since prior inspection plus checking in a week) will probably be a bit too soon to expect eggs.

 

[Gray Goose]

How long does it take the girls to make a supercedure cell and hatch it. One of my hives went queenless and I found a cell that looks like it may have been a hatched supercedure. I am talking shortest case scenario. I went in 9 days ago and there were eggs, larvae and capped brood. Today there were no eggs and only capped brood. Is it possible they used one of the larvae, capped it, and hatched it in 9 days?

no not possible. queen hatches in 16 days, larvae is capped in 8 days, as they can use up to a 2 day old larvae, they would cap in 3 days then it would hatch in 11 days. 9 days would mean they used a 5 day old larve, which As I understand will not make a viable queen.
GG