I am a novice beekeeper with 2 hives started from 2 5lb shipments of Italian package bees from York. Each package ate a quart of 1:1 syrup the evening of delivery. Hiving was unremarkable; each hive has taken 1 pint of 1:1 sugar syrup each day since. Week 1 inspection showed queens released, both hives with drawn comb in 6.5- 7 of the 10 frames. This seemed fast, but I did buy 5 lb. (Between postal rates and package prices, the difference between 3 and 5 lb seemed small). I saw honey and pollen in both hives, no brood. I withdrew only 2 frames; frame 3 (next to where I had placed the queen cage) and frame 6. I did not see the queens. Peeked in on day 10 and saw bees drawing comb on frame 9 of first hive. I did not disturb any frames, just added a 2nd deep hive body to both hives. Week 3 inspection (today) shows first hive with a good pattern of capped and open brood in frames 2 and 3. Plenty of burr comb and drone cells, some very little work on upper hive body, in fact not much drawn comb on frames 9-10 of lower body. Uncapped pollen and honey in upper parts of frames, with bees gorging. I only withdrew frames 2 and 3 for inspection, did not see queen. I did no cutting of comb except what was necessary to separate those 2 frames for inspection. The second hive has even more burr comb and drone cells, absolutely no work on upper hive body and 8 frames drawn below. This hive was slightly more irritated but both have seemed quite gentle since delivery. I saw what looked like queen cells in this hive on the two frames I inspected. I saw good brood but no queen. Should I worry about these "queen cells?" As a novice, I can't claim to be certain that they were queen cells, but they certainly resembled the pictures in Dadant's "First Lessons in Bee Keeping." Dadant mentions that supercedure is sometimes a problem in week 3 with package bees. My research before buying indicated that York provides quality, well-bred queens and I would hate to lose one so quickly. Reading the archives has been very educational but I saw nothing quite like this question. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Steve Fairfax [log in to unmask]