I will have a go at your questions.
1. The virgin will seek and kill the other queen
2. Not likely. Laying queens are interested in laying. If the queen cell(s) are open and short, the laying queen will eat the larvae and some of the jelly. If the cell(s) are extended or capped, the laying queen cannot and will not destroy them.
3. No. Cells will not interfere with combining the bees. However, as 1 and 2 above the cells will definitely adversely affect the laying queen in due course and time.
4. No. In my experience, generally, the colony does not kill a laying queen if she is introduced properly. The emerging virgin(s) from missed cells do the killing.
Hope that helps!
I?m in the process of combining two weak colonies, both from swarms. One has a laying queen. The other has several supercedure cells - pretty poor quality. They are now separated by a double screen board.
My questions:
1. If a virgin queen is present (in the colony with supecedure cells) when the screen is removed and they are combined, what events will transpire?
2. If a cell or cells are still present, will the laying queen destroy them? (That?s my guess.)
3. Will these cells interfere in any way with the entire combination process?
A related question:
If I introduced a mated queen to that colony with queen cells, would the colony reject/kill the introduced queen?
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