I hived a colony from a nuc at the third week of May.
The queen was laying as I saw eggs at my inspection.
About two weeks after I hived them I noticed a capped queen cell in the upper middle of one of the frames. It was the first time I noticed it and it was already capped, I haven't got any idea how long it was there since the bees could have been covering it.
I left it alone and checked it a few days later and it was still the same way.
7 days after that I went out to inspect and the cell was opened on the bottom, there were eggs in the frames but I couldn't find the queen, I figured as long as there were eggs all was right in the world.
My question would they cap an empty queen cell for some reason?
They never acted like or appeared to be queenless.
If there were a new queen I am assuming that I would not see eggs that quickly.
The queen would have had to hatch in the last 7 days and then be laying eggs.
My other thought is that there are two queens at the moment, the old one still laying and the new one not mated yet, which seems to be the more likely scenario.
Still though, I am wondering if they ever build and then actually cap the cells and not use them.