Does the presence of a virgin queen inhibit a hive from building 
emergency queen cells?  I seem to remember reading somewhere that virgin 
queens do not have pheromones right away.

I recently split hives and installed a ripe queen cell immediately while 
making the splits.  Checked back after a few weeks (when the new queen 
should have been mated and laying) and noticed that the hives had 
produced their own emergency cells.  These had apparently emerged after 
a week and a half and killed the virgin that hatched from the cell I 
intentionally added in the beginning.  My cell appeared to have emerged, 
as the end was open the day after installing it.  I only checked two of 
the hives (out of 120 that I did in that batch) but figure if the first 
random two hives I opened were in this condition then it would be the 
same with most of them.

Contrarily, earlier in the season I harvested mated queens from nucs and 
added a ripe queen cell at the same time and had good results, the nucs 
apparently accepting the virgin and not producing emergency cells.

I welcome hearing about any of your experiences with queen cells.

Jeremy Rose
San Luis Obispo, CA

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