supersedure cells

[troutstalker2]

  I have a hive that seems to be doing very well except I found 4 queen cells near the top of one of the frames. The queen seems to be producing alot of brood and everything else seems to be fine, brood in various stages of development, etc. Should I let them do their thing and supersede? They do not seem to be swarm cells and we are in the honey flow in North Carolina.

[SgtMaj]

That's a tough question.  I think it's going to depend on how far into the spring flow you are over there where you are in NC.  If the eggs laid now wouldn't hatch out before the end of the spring flow, then I'd say let them do their thing, but if the eggs laid right now would hatch out with some time left in the spring flow, then do what you can to delay the supersedure until the time when eggs wouldn't hatch out before the end of the spring flow.  That way you might get a little better honey harvest. 

But I think if they want to supercede, there's nothing you can really do to stop it permanently.

[Brian D. Bray]

The more the beekeeper does to prevent supercedure the more damage he can do to the hive.  If the bees are intent upon supercedure it is best to let them do it and get it over with.  They still have enough of a season left to stock enough stores to overwinter and provide a harvest.

Often when a hive caps the supercedure cells they off the old queen, making the hive temporarily queenless, so destroying the queen cells is not advised.

Bees also build queen cups (half cells) for emergency insurance.  They build them, tear them out and rebuild them else where.

Cups are nothing to be alarmed about and are quite common, especially in Carnies and Russians, Capped cells ,on the other hand, should be treated as the queen and left alone.

[troutstalker2]

  Thanks Brian, I was sort of thinking the same. I think sometimes I over manage my Hives.

David