Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Heartstone]

I have a nuc I got in the first week of July. It has been doing well, however, today I looked in to find a fully formed but empty supercedure cell in the centre of one frame.

Fully capped brood, larvae at different stages and eggs all present. A good pattern across the frames and around 4 frames of brood. I did notice the some of the capped brood looks dark in colour.

Any ideas on what is going to, or has happened?

I am assuming the empty cell along with eggs in implies the queen has been superseded and a new mated queen is now laying.

Is an empty cell (absolutely clean inside) sign of a new queen just being started? or as I am lead to believe means it has already hatched?

Could it just be an old cell I never noticed before (although it is large)?

I don't think they have swarmed.

[Dexter's shed]

if it was a supersedure then swarming has nothing to do with it, it's just queen replacement, was the cell smooth edged (not yet sealed) or jagged (newly emerged)

I personally would remove it, if they want to they will build another

[Heartstone]

I did not look to see if it was jagged or smooth. But it was completely empty. No egg or larvae present.