[Brad Bee]

I was checking a hive yesterday here in the middle of swarm central and found more queen cells. Trying to diminish afterswarms I removed some of the cells. I laid the cells on the landing board and it they were covered with bees in seconds. When I put the hive back together I picked up the cells and put them on the inner cover to inspect. One of the cells had a fully developed queen in it, When I cut the cells off the frame it had opened the end of one. The ready to hatch queen was backing out of the cell. The bees attacked her as soon as she got on the cover. Her abdomen looked slightly flat at the end, so I don't know if I squished her a little or if she wasn't ready to hatch.

With them attacking the queen does that mean that there is another queen in the hive? The original queen must have caught a swarm out of the hive because there are no eggs or larvae but there may be a hatched virgin in it.

 

[Bees In Miami]

Sounds to me like 'survival of the fittest', and since this was a forced hatching, if you "squished her a little", they knew she was doomed. I have always gone by the rule that smashing queen cells was the easiest way to guarantee a queenless hive. Can you please explain "original queen must have caught a swarm out of the hive"?

 

[Brad Bee]

The original queen is not in the box. I'm guessing she swarmed. The hive has multiple queen cells in it. I was trying to reduce the number of queen cells (not eliminate them all) to hopefully reduce the number of afterswarms.