swarm cell or supercedure cell?

[derrick1p1]

I have a hive that was very strong and equalized with a weaker hive.  I also rotated boxes to prevent swarming.  After leaving this hive alone for 2-3 weeks it has been doing well.  It is now drawing comb.  I inspected on Friday and found queen cells high and low and I destroyed them.  I went in 4 days later and found one at the bottom of a frame and 3 others in the center and top  of another frame. I removed the cell that was low and left those up high alone. I see plenty of capped brood and young larva, but no eggs (from what I can see..their hard to find).  I didn't see the queen, but have never had luck actually finding her.  After talking to a great beekeeping friend, I've opted to let this hive be and do what it is h...bent on doing.  Seemed to be the safest option.  Any thoughts?

[JP]

How does one equalize a strong hive with a weak one?

Your information is a little contradictory, is this hive busting at the seams with a ton of activity? Could be swarm cells, sounds like swarm cells, supercedure cells are midway on the combs.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

High and low?  Could be emergency cells.  I never destroy queen cells.  I'd just do a split.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm#queencellsbad
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm#queencells
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#swarmcontrol

[Brian D. Bray]

I am with MB, destroying queen cells, any queen cells is a good way to end up queenless.  It is better to do a split or 2 and have too many queens than destroy queen cells and find you now have no queen.

IF THE QUEEN CELLS HAVE BEEN CAPPED CHANCES ARE VERY HIGH THAT THE OLD QUEEN HAS ALREADY LEFT THE HIVE OR BEEN KILLED IN THE CASE OF SUPERCEDURE.  THE MORE QUEEN CELLS THE MORE INSURANCE THE HIVE HAS OF A SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSOR.

Emergency queen cells will be wherever the worker bees can find an egg of sufficient quality to become a queen candidate.  That is, on every part of the frame, high, low, and inbetween.  Sounds to me like you killed off your Emergency requeening.