...I killed the queen.... How to choose which queen cells to keep?

[RichardK]

Back on the 19th May in my attempt to catch and mark the queen I must have maimed her in some way. I was having issues catching her not helped by the sweat dripping onto glasses as it was so hot. Anyhow... I gave up. Upon my inspection 7 days later (2 days ago) there were no eggs, no queen but around 10'ish emergency cells. Some closed, some open. It was a relatively populous hive, but not stacked. I took the opportunity to split the hive into two nucs each with 5'ish queen cells.

I think I need to reduce the queen cells down to one or two? Is that right? How though do I choose between the cells? Overall size, youngest (probably all capped by now though)?

Thanks for any guidance.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you split the colony roughly equally you can probably leave them alone.
For the future what you should do is remove all capped ones and select an open one.

 

[RichardK]

If you split the colony roughly equally you can probably leave them alone.
For the future what you should do is remove all capped ones and select an open one.

Thank you. They were split as equally as i could & butted up next to each other in the original location.

 

[Bluebell1985]

If you split the colony roughly equally you can probably leave them alone.
For the future what you should do is remove all capped ones and select an open one.

Is there a reason why you leave an open one?

 

[Swarm]

You know it is viable.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is there a reason why you leave an open one?

you have a better idea of when the queen will emerge

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is there a reason why you leave an open one?

In your case they are emergency cells. The capped ones are made on older larvae and are not as well fed as the younger ones and will likely produce inferior queens.
Also leaving an open cell you know there is a larva there and when the new queen will emerge.

 

[Bluebell1985]

In your case they are emergency cells. The capped ones are made on older larvae and are not as well fed as the younger ones and will likely produce inferior queens.
Also leaving an open cell you know there is a larva there and when the new queen will emerge.

Thank you very much for the explanation