queen behavior

[rober]

often when you have multiple queen cells in a hive the 1st queen to hatch will open the remaining queen cells & kill those queens. why then does an existing queen tolerate supercedure cells?

[BeeMaster2]

often when you have multiple queen cells in a hive the 1st queen to hatch will open the remaining queen cells & kill those queens. why then does an existing queen tolerate supercedure cells?

Remember the worker bees control the hive. They will keep queens in their cells when they plan to make multiple swarms. They will keep 2 queens apart if they get out and plan on multiple swarms. It in not uncommon, 20% of hives at certian times, to have a mother daughter in the same hive at the same time both laying eggs.
The bees will protect the cells if they need to replace the queen.
Jim

[flyboy]

Thanks SDM, good info

[Rmcpb]

The bees surely control the hive. I had one hive last summer that had two queens with no problem. Will be interesting to see if they are both there this spring or if they swarm.

cheers
Rob.

[Michael Bush]

>why then does an existing queen tolerate supercedure cells?

The difference between a virgin queen and a laying queen is like the difference between a broody hen and a laying hen.  They have different instincts.  Virgins have murder on their mind.  Laying queens have laying on their mind.

[rober]

the existing queen is hardly laying at all which is likely why the hive is replacing her. since I was planning on replacing should I just catch her & snuff her? there is a chance that if there's a battle when the new queen hatches that the existing queen could win out.

[Michael Bush]

There is unlikely to be any battle between a virgin and a laying queen.  The virgin will ignore the laying queen, go out and mate, start laying and when her pheromones outshine the old queen's pheromones, they will just stop taking care of her.