I put a note on the list last week regarding the status of emergency queen
cells after requeening. For those who missed it I will repeat the text
below...
 
 
As I introduced a new queen last night by an amalgamtion of a nuc , (used
to
raise her), and the target hive I noticed what appeared to a number of
emergency queen cells in the queenless hive that was to receive the new
queen.
 
The hive had been made queenless approximately seven hours earlier when I
dispatched the previous monarch & dropped her in the bottom of the hive.
 
My query relates to what the new queen does with the emergency queen cells?
Does she leave them thus leaving the chance of supercedure, or does she
tear them down like a virgin queen who has just hatched would? Or do the
worker/nurse bees simply not procede with the queen cell once the new queen
is established?
 
I intend to check in the next 10 days just to make sure that there are no
queen cells as the old girl generated a strong but willing bunch who I am
looking forward to seeing the end of....
 
Well, I was disappointed not to receive one response as this, I thought,
was critical in the acceptance or else of the queens we choose to
introduce. The last thing I want is for the hive to kill or quickly
supercede my chosen Queen (unless there is something wrong with her) given
my investment and my desire for the characteristics which she was chosen
for.
 
So to get the ball rolling I thought I should share the progression of the
hive to dispel at least one of the options (in this case). The united hive
is now eight days on, I open it and inspected the brood to ascertain if any
queen cells were present, fortunately none were, so I guess the bees either
decided not to proceed with any they had started or the new queen tore them
down.
 
For the record, given recent postings on the subject of uniting, the
process seems to have been achieved with no deaths or dramas. I used a
technique which I discussed on this forum with Dr. Rodriguez. This was a
minor variation of the newspaper method whereby I put a sheet of mesh over
approx. one third of the former brood box so that the bees could smell the
new queen and the new hive smell. In addition I employed another
recommendation off this forum which was to make a weak sugar solution and
scent it with peppermint. In the fray I only remembered to spray the
original brood box and the top honey super, however I am sure that it
helped by disrupting the hive smell long enough to help the amalgamation.
 
Enough from me, thanks for everybodies ideas, they really helped.
 
Regards
 
 
Paul Roberts
 
Brisbane Australia