swarm cells and supercedure cells, what will happen?

[goertzen29]

Yesterday one of my hives was found to have 1 capped supercedure queen cell (in the middle of a frame) and 2 or 3 other swam cells hanging from the bottom of a frame with a very small larva and royal jelly.

I'm wondering what this means?  Are they going to swarm or just supersede their current queen?   

The brood pattern isn't great but partly because there's so much pollen dotted all over the place. 

and I did see the queen so I know she isn't dead and hasn't swarmed yet.

[schawee]

had that in one of my hives ,they didn't swarm because the queen hatched from the supercedure cell and killed the other queens.   ...schawee

[annette]

Had that happen to me also. They had one supercedure cell in the middle and 2 on the bottom.  Wasn't sure if they were to swarm or supercede.  Michael Bush told me they were indeed supercedure cells, all of them. And that is exactly what happened, they superceded the queen.

I know when you read the books they always say the supercedure cells are always in the middle of the frames. But sometimes the books are wrong.

[goertzen29]

I hope you guys are right......I was kind of thinking that since the first to hatch will be the supercedure queen that maybe she would kill the others and the hive wouldn't swarm... I hope it happens that way:)

thanks for the input

[Michael Bush]

It's not about location, it's about context.  Location is one piece of the puzzle.  The time of year, the crowdedness of the hive, the open space or lack of it in the brood nest.  So lets try a couple of senarios.

If I found queen cells anywhere in a hive that is crowded and the brood nest clogged with nectar, I would assume they are swarm cells.

If I found queen cells anywhere in a hive that is dwindling, has lots of room in the hive and lots of empty cells in the brood nest, I would assume they are supersedure cells.

True, the swarm cells tend to be on the edges of comb (not necessarily the bottom), while supersedure cells tend to be more in the middle of the combs, but I would not draw too strong of a conclusion just from the location.