Emergency queen cells

[Curly green finger's]

Afternoon I’ve been knocking down some EQCs this last week in a couple of starters I’m going to use and some of the cells were huge and looked well fed does anyone use EQCs as a stop gap in nucs if not why not?
Thanks

 

[Antipodes]

Afternoon I’ve been knocking down some EQCs this last week in a couple of starters I’m going to use and some of the cells were huge and looked well fed does anyone use EQCs as a stop gap in nucs if not why not?
Thanks

I guess you could.
It probably depends on things like the strength/numbers of bees raising them and their food supply and also if you know from inspections that they have used the right age larva in a cell from the start, it may be better to use that than choosing a random capped one. Because you choose it, rather than letting the bees, they may have torn it down at some stage or sorted out which emergency queen should stay. I've seen research somewhere along those lines....
I recall also seeing research that showed that the size of the cell wasn't necessarily indicative of the size of the queen to emerge from it.

 

[ericbeaumont]

size of the cell wasn't necessarily indicative of the size of the queen to emerge from it.

Yes, EQCs look tiddly but they go all the way back to the foundation and are just as good, so long as the colony had enough nurse bees.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yes, EQCs look tiddly but they go all the way back to the foundation and are just as good, so long as the colony had enough nurse bees.

Cheers both it just seemed a shame to waste those cells , I could of selected the best I knocked down 18 cells in one and 10 in the other and both colony’s are very populated never mind it’s done now thanks for the reply’s