Years back we had a raging debate here on BEE-L about emergency queens.  No 
matter what, there was a strong bias against, and even some tricks proposed 
to eliminate the supposed intercastes.  Then one day I heard Larry Connor 
say that the bees won't use older larvae if younger are available.  Later, I 
noticed that Michael Bush had dug up some interesting support for queens 
raised on the emergency impulse.  So armed, I wrote this recently:
---

In the past, I have received considerable flak for advocating emergency 
queens, with many beekeepers insisting that bees will choose larvae that are 
too old.  A few wise old beekeepers have taken my side, but most beekeepers 
are afraid of emergency queens.  After all, emergency queens are what we get 
in walk-away splits, so if the queens are no good, neither is the method.

In searching around, I notice that Michael Bush has found some justification 
for my beliefs.  See http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm.  Here is 
a quote:

Emergency queens:

"It has been stated by a number of beekeepers who should know better 
(including myself) that the bees are in such a hurry to rear a queen that 
they choose larvae too old for best results. later observation has shown the 
fallacy of this statement and has convinced me that bees do the very best 
that can be done under existing circumstances.

"The inferior queens caused by using the emergency method is because the 
bees cannot tear down the tough cells in the old combs lined with cocoons. 
The result is that the bees fill the worker cells with bee milk floating the 
larvae out the opening of the cells, then they build a little queen cell 
pointing downward. The larvae cannot eat the bee milk back in the bottom of 
the cells with the result that they are not well fed. However, if the colony 
is strong in bees, are well fed and have new combs, they can rear the best 
of queens. And please note-- they will never make such a blunder as choosing 
larvae too old."--Jay Smith

C.C. Miller's view of emergency queens

"If it were true, as formerly believed, that queenless bees are in such 
haste to rear a queen that they will select a larva too old for the purpose, 
then it would hardly do to wait even nine days. A queen is matured in 
fifteen days from the time the egg is laid, and is fed throughout her larval 
lifetime on the same food that is given to a worker-larva during the first 
three days of its larval existence. So a worker-larva more than three days 
old, or more than six days from the laying of the egg would be too old for a 
good queen. If, now, the bees should select a larva more than three days 
old, the queen would emerge in less than nine days. I think no one has ever 
known this to occur. Bees do not prefer too old larvae. As a matter of fact 
bees do not use such poor judgment as to select larvae too old when larvae 
sufficiently young are present, as I have proven by direct experiment and 
many observations."--Fifty Years Among the Bees, C.C. Miller
 

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