> Bob H and Peter B both stated in previous post that if queen 
> cells were already present that there were at least times 
> that the hive would "honor" the cells already made. 

This is reliably the case, as producing a queen is a
very expensive effort for a hive, and while the hive
certainly may produce multiple queen cells in their
effort to produce swarms or hedge their bets in a
supercedure, they gain nothing by destroying cells
just because an additional cell has magically appeared,
placed there by the beekeeper.

Just as requeening is sometimes frustrated by the
presence of a second queen in the hive to be requeened,
introducing queen cells would be frustrated by the
presence of any existing queen cells.

> Peter then stated that sometimes bees would hold
> queens in their cells for some period of time.
> I think this is fascinating and didnt know of it.
> Is it common?

Yes.  The delay of queen emergence is prompted by
the queen piping of the first queen to emerge.

This is likely what will happen to your introduced
queen cell if existing queen cells are not removed.
If the first queen emerges, mates, returns from the
mating flight, and looks undamaged, the bees are
likely to accept her.  Your queen emerges later,
and likely leads a swarm out the door.  So much
for consistent genetics in the yards.

The instinctive rationale for the bees is to avoid
the "virgin queens fighting to the death" scenario
which so many people like to talk about and 
photograph, but is so wasteful for the bees, hence
the whole complex "pipe/quack" scheme.  The delay 
also makes sense from the standpoint of producing
multiple swarms.  Timing is everything.

> Do the queens die in the cells? 

Not that I've ever read.  Clearly, there is a
limit to how long a queen can remain confined.

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