Why are there still queen cells in hive?

[Aroc]

I had a hive swarm on me a few weeks ago.  I saw capped queen cells about the 10th of June or so.  A week ago I heard a queen piping.

Today I took a peek and noticed a couple of queen cells in the upper brood chamber.  There was still some capped brood from the previous queen and some uncapped larvae.  I guessing 5-6 days old.  Didn't see any eggs but it was cloudy.

The larvae must be from a newly emerged queen but I can't figure out what the queen cells were doing in there.

[Joe D]

You could have had another swarm

Joe D

[Aroc]

Could a queen have had enough time to mate and lay eggs and swarm again in just a week?

[BeeMaster2]

If you hear queens piping, that means that the bees are holding the queens in there cells so that they can super swarm (swarm over and over again). When this is allowed to happen, there is a good chance that the original hive will not survive.
Smoke the hive lightly wait 10 minutes, find at least 10 to 15 queen cages,  smoke again lightly, wait 30 seconds and then slowly inspect every frame and carefully open the queen cells. Place the queens in the cages. Go through the entire hive and find every Q cell. Pick the best one and put it back in the hive. If it is a very large hive you can make up a couple of splits. If you disturb the bees too much, they will stop tending to keep the queens in the cells and the queens will all hatch out in mass. If that happens, work fast to catch them all.
Have a small jar of alcohol ready to put any dead queens into. Use the alcohol for swarm traps.
Good luck.
Jim

[Aroc]

I'm following what you are saying.....I think.  At this point the hive wouldn't be large enough to handle a split.

Should I go in and destroy all the queen cells but one?

[BeeMaster2]

Don't destroy them, open and catch the queens and then pick the best one, largest one and put her back in the hive.
Try keeping the queens alive for the sake of learning
What it takes to do to keep them alive and save them in the alcohol when they die or offer them to other heels in your area.
Jim