Supersede questions

[greenbtree]

When a hive supersedes a queen, do the workers kill the old queen?  I have a cutout that is building supersede queen cells even though the current queen was starting to lay nicely again.  I'm thinking the hive was triggered by the disturbance and the break in brood cycle.  I took two frames with capped queen cells and started nucs, I'm just wondering if the hive will send the current queen to the great beyond.

JC

[D Coates]

There's a chance they'll still dispatch her but who knows.  The cutout created all types of disturbances that the hive is trying to work through.  Is she still laying eggs and at a good clip?  If so they may calm down and keep her.  If they'll take it, feeding may reduce the stress further.  Stay flexible and be prepaired to recombine one of the nucs if for whatever reason they end up queenless.  How the hive kills off a queen they deem unfit?  I've read they'll stop feeding her but I've seen queens feed themselves so I'd assume they ball her and toss her body out but I've never seen it in a supercedure situation.

[Michael Bush]

I'd say typically they do not.  They raise a new queen, the new queen gets mated and makes much more of the pheromones that the old queen lacks (which induced them to replace her) and so she gets ignored and starves... but sometimes she sticks around until winter.

[greenbtree]

Thanks for the info guys.  Just when I think I know a fair amount about bees, a subject pops up that I realize I know NOTHING about.  Of course, that's what keeps this so interesting.  The old queen is laying really well now, I replaced the frames I took with nice drawn comb, and they are taking syrup, so hopefully they will settle down.  Wild black raspberry just starting to bloom here, and the nature reserve bordering my property is hip deep in the stuff, so they should be happy.

JC