A critical reader kindly sent me some questions about several of my
(labyrinthine) web pages accessed from
http://www.internode.net/Honeybee/spring.htm
 
The question at hand here is specifically regarding
http://www.internode.net/Honeybee/Spring/mgmt.htm
 
These pages are works in progress, and there are some minor issues.  One
in particular is outlined below.
 
On this matter, I must confess I have been parrotting somewhat
uncritically what I understand David Eyre and others to have said here,
and am at a loss to explain better than I have below.
 
Perhaps there are some subtleties that I am missing, but it appears to me,
and to my reader, that breaking down capped cells on the fourth day does
not *guarantee* that no older latva will become queen, but merely reduce
the odds.
 
What say ye all?
 
> > 2. Page 6  ...If the hive is inspected on the fourth day and any capped
> > cells are broken down (to ensure any cells started with older larvae
> > are destroyed.) this method is more likely to make an excellent queen.
> > Are you adding fresh eggs at this time?
> >
> >No.  The uncapped cells are the ones that should have younger larvae.
>
> I don't understand this.  Why would the bees select older larva for
> queens?  and wouldn't the younger larva be just as old after breaking
> down the cells following the four day period?
 
Assume that the maximum larva age for a good queen cell start is 36 hrs.
 
Dequeen the colony.
 
After some short time the bees start emergency cells over existing worker
larvae.  Due to the suddeness of the dequeening, some bees may get
confused and start cells over any random larva.  I have even seen drone
larvae used in extreme cases.
 
Since queen cells are capped five days after the larva hatches from an egg,
by going on the fourth day after dequeening to destroy capped cells, any
cells originally made from larvae over 24 (or so) hours are knocked
down. Odds are that, now, at least some of the open cells were started
from young larvae.
 
Of course the bees may have continued to make cells from older larvae, but
those cells will now be even with or behind the earliest cells made from
younger larvae in development and will not be as likely to emerge in time
to dominate competition for hive leadership -- unless the balance of these
earlier cells fail for some reason -- such as rough handling during the
inspection.  Before this culling process, the most advanced cells were
more certain to have originated from the oldest larvae.
 
The assumption above is that there will be numerous large and well
fed cells found at time of inspection.  If this is not the case, then this
may be a sign that the bees may not be sufficiently motivated or have
adequate resources to ensure that *any* of the emergency cells are very
good.
 
A factor that would seem to limit this technique is the fact that bees
will often wait a day or more before starting cells, in which case there
may often be no capped cells on the fourth day.  When bees are slower to
begin, are they still likely to chose older larvae?
 
Allen