Supercedure Queen cells

[sterling]

I hived three 3# packages of 4.9 bees april 20. In two weeks all had capped brood. Last week one had a supersedure cell today it had about a dozen supercedure cells and a little capped worker brood most had emerged already.
My question is can a 3# package four weeks old stay strong enough to raise a queen then raise brood. Will there be enough bees stay alive to do this. Or what should be my best option.

[AliciaH]

sterling, was there only the small amount of capped brood left?  Was the old queen still in there?  There were no eggs or larvae, just the capped brood?

On the question of colony strength, your advantage is that you have two other packages to draw from.  If you have no eggs and larvae now, you could pull a single frame from one colony, then when all that is capped, you could pull a single frame from the other colony.  This assumes, of course, that the other two colony's queens laying on more than one frame so their numbers will continue to rotate and grow.

You'll just need to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't continue to make more supersedure cells off the new batch of eggs.  They've already got that covered.

[VolunteerK9]

My .02 is that the supercedure is probably due to lack of brood and that they can cover the supercedure cells just fine. Just keep a watch on their progress, but with 3 new packages I wouldnt rob Peter to pay Paul to just keep one going. If you do, you will have 3 mediocre hives instead of 2 really good ones. We still have a good month of a flow here, check their progress in a few weeks then combine if necessary.

[Michael Bush]

Whatever they are doing, I would let them.  They will succeed or they won't but interfering with matters of queendom have never worked for me.  If they think the old queen is not good enough, then you trust their judgment.  It's not just about laying eggs, it's about producing the pheromones that hold the colony together.  If she's not, then they will replace her.