How long do unattended capped larvae survive?
The daughter's hive swarmed on Saturday. She got in the hive after the fact and did some house cleaning (long story) and removed burr comb and some queen cells. She put all the comb on top of the hive for the bees to rob out. When we were there on Sunday looking at the situation, a queen started to emerge (little antanae wiggling). We debated about putting her back in but decided against it as there were still queen cells in the hive. We didn't know if she would be comprised after the cell had been exposed to the weather (cool and rainy) for 24 hours. Anyway, the antannae went back into the cell, and we left with it. Thought it would make a good show and tell at our association beginning bee classes. Once in the warm car, it didn't take her long to come out of her cell. She wandered all over the comb on the way home. Talked to a couple of people who said she should be fine, so put her in a queen cage, grabbed some syrup along with a handful of bees and put them all together. We'll see how things go from here.