how quick does a hive realize they are queenless ?

[bulldog]

i learned this one first hand when splitting a hive. i didn't bother looking for the queen because i was leaving both hives plenty of brood frames in each to make one whichever one ended up queenless had the means to produce a new one.they were calm as could be for most of it, but when i was nearly through the original hive's whole demeanor changed instantly. i was getting headbutts like they were going out of style and even had to leave the area for a few minutes. at the time i wasn't completely sure but had a hunch what had happened. this weekends inspection confirmed it though. they had several queen cells one of which was torn open already. also i thought i heard piping for an instant or two then it stopped.

which leads me to another question. will a newly hatched virgin queen attack and kill queen cells at random or does she kill the ones most likely to hatch first ? four queen cells next to one another only one was torn open. or is it possible i interrupted her from killing the others, she may have ran when i got to that frame.

[FRAMEshift]

The bees will prevent the virgin from killing any queen cells that they want to preserve.  My guess is that she would like to kill them all.

[Michael Bush]

In about 10 minutes most know.  In two hours they all know. 

A virgin queen is only interested in killing virgin queens and queen cells.  Not saying shey MIGHT not fight a laying queen, but usually she has no interest in it.