>>That's one helluva assumption Jeremy!  I'd check yet one more before
>>drawing conclusions...


Check more than two hives... that sounds like work!  In reality I have been so far behind on things lately that the only way I will ultimately know if those divides have queens or not will be to see which ones are still alive a month from now.

On a more serious note and to spur this discussion on a little bit more-- At what stages of a queen's life is she hostile to other queen cells in the hive?  A virgin queen will destroy capped queen cells when she first emerges... but what about during the rest of the time between when she first emerges and when she establishes her brood nest?

For instance, if the hive only has 1- or 2-day old open emergency queen cells when the beekeeper-added cell emerges?  In that case, the virgin queen will sometimes ignore other cells and she is superseded before she even starts laying.

I would also guess that particular strains/genetic variants of honeybees respond differently, some being more tolerant of queen cells in the hive.


-- Jeremy Rose

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