> > Does anyone have any references or personal experience that confirms
> >  that the results of emergency queen rearing are indeed inferior?

> I have often requeened using an "emergency" queen method, but going back
> four days after pulling the old queen, you will find fully capped queen
> cells... "Test everything..."

Thanks for the replies, folks.  There's enough here to keep me hammering
away at this, and my reasoning does not prove that there is necessarily
anything wrong with the  cells sealed after four days...

Let's walk through the whole thing:

>From Laidlaw's 'Contempory Queen Rearing'

Day
----
1     Egg
-
2     Egg
-
3     Egg
-     (Hatching)
4     1st larval
-      1st moult
5     2nd larval
-      2nd moult
6     3rd larval
-      3rd moult
7      4th larval
-      4th moult  (sealing)
8     etc...

Now, let's look at the above and reason thus:

* We dequeen a hive and it takes a day to realise that and start cells.
* When it does start, it uses 2 day old larvae (the oldest suitable)
* Two days later they are capped (see above)
* On day four the beekeeper comes and sees capped cells.

That is as it should bee.  In't it?

allen