great brood pattern but supercedure cells?

[wildbeekeeper]

Hi all,

I have a hive from a cutout that I did at the beginning of May and it has been doing well and is at 1 1/2 deeps drawn out with great looking brood pattern.....however a check today revealed that there are 4 supercedure cells.  my question is this:  with the queen laying such a great brood pattern, should I remove the supercedure cells or should I just let the bees do their thing?  I thought about doing a split from it, but not sure.....any opinions or advice would be appreciated!

[asprince]

Are the just cups or are they active queen cells?

Steve

[riverrat]

if it is a really strong hive and the queen is older she may be loosing her pheromones scent and the hive is trying to replace her if you indeed do have superceedure cells

[wildbeekeeper]

they are full blown capped queen cells...probably due to hatch in a few days or less. There was a 5th that they are working on that isnt capped but you can see the royal jelly and the larvae in it.

So if she is losing her pheromones but still laying really well, would it best to just make a split and let her keep going or just let the bees do there thing?  Id hate to see them get set back a few weeks till the new queen gets going.....ahh decisions decisions!!

[asprince]

I would do a small split.

Steve

[riverrat]

i believe i would do a split if the old queen is indeed slowing down and the hive gets weak you can always combine later. you didnt day how strong the hive was im assuming since she is laying like that it is very strong and that may bee the problem that created a supercedure cell

[wildbeekeeper]

the hive is two deeps with 4 1/2 frames NOT drawn out yet....

[riverrat]

i would do the split feed both and if they are weak you can always recombine

[iddee]

If you do the split, take the queen and leave the cells in the original hive in the original location. Take only 3 frames of brood with the split. Feed the split heavily.