Having a ripe queen cell will speed the process but some beekeepers claim a queen raised when a hive is queenless is better than one from a swarm cell. That the workers lavish her with more larval food. I have no proof of this but it does make some sense. If there is no laying queen there will be fewer young bees to feed & they tend to raise fewer queens. (Supersedure versus swarming). A colony raising two or three supercedure cells have more royal jelly available than a colony raising a dozen or many more swarm cells. In truth it probably makes little difference. IMHO how strong the colony is makes more. Splitting a strong colony will raise good queens. Splitting a weak undernourished colony could raise an inferior one. |
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joanne |
Are you going to move the queen if there are no queen cells? |