> A mate in Victoria (Australia) just places the cell into the hive without
> removing the old queen.  Not sure if he uses a cell protector, and appears
> to be a successful beekeeper.   I have heard that some New Zealanders do 
> the
> same thing, and the claim was made to me that they had an eighty percent
> success rate.  I am unclear as to whether this was a gut feeling or based 
> on
> some controlled experiment.

There is considerable discussion in the bee-l archives about this, which
might be found by searching the word "overcelling".  Most years I have
raised about a thousand cells for overcelling (protected with aluminium
foil in my case).  My "gut feeling" is that less than fifty per cent are
successful.  I put them in during our last heavy nectar and pollen flow
on goldenrod before winter, and so do not know until spring.  It is
very obvious then when they have been successful.  But maybe some
were successful but the hive condition had gone down below
"winterable", since brood production is ending not long after the
goldenrod flow.

This year I purchased 1400 queen cells (which were transported by
air cargo in organ transport containers, about 7 mm thick styrofoam!)
and put them in nucs.  In the end the success rate of the nucs was
only about fifty per cent.  We had rotten mating weather all through
the period I was doing nucs.

So, considering how simple overcelling is, I am not really dissuaded
by only having half work out. 

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