Queens - what comes first?

[LeaBees]

Which comes first in the creation of a queen in a queen cell - the royal jelly or the egg ?
Regular inspection found me checking out and squishing what I thought (and still think) was a queen cup at the bottom of a frame (I squish them so I know when and which ones are new), and it could have been the light/glint off my hive tool but there is a chance I saw a little white speck just as I squished it. No royal jelly, nothing squishy and colony queen seen several frames before hence my question. Did I just kick the swarm can down the (very short) road?
Thanks all

 

[Erichalfbee]

Egg
But an egg in a queen cup is not a queen cell till it has royal jelly for the larva

 

[B+.]

The larva. They don't feed eggs

 

[LeaBees]

Thanks.
This set me off on another musing.. I imagine most Queens would not want to be superseded or intentionally create a rival so would avoid laying in a queencup shaped cell (I know I am ascribing human traits to bees). So, do the workers move the eggs from a regular worker cell into a queen cup then provide the royal jelly? Or is the queen entirely oblivious to where she lays or is just that selfless (again human trait) ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

The larva. They don't feed eggs

But where does the larva come from? Surely the egg has to be laid there first

 

[IndiBee]

The chicken

 

[Patrick1]

But where does the larva come from? Surely the egg has to be laid there first

I believe the workers move the egg to the prepared queen cell, I dont think the queen has a say in it, turkeys dont vote for xmas do they

 

[Patrick1]

Thanks.
This set me off on another musing.. I imagine most Queens would not want to be superseded or intentionally create a rival so would avoid laying in a queencup shaped cell (I know I am ascribing human traits to bees). So, do the workers move the eggs from a regular worker cell into a queen cup then provide the royal jelly? Or is the queen entirely oblivious to where she lays or is just that selfless (again human trait) ?

Selfless humans ? I hope thats a typo if not, I want to live on your planet If we could learn from bees it would be a better place to live, but after millions of years I cant see that happening ☹☹

 

[drex]

I believe the workers move the egg to the prepared queen cell, I dont think the queen has a say in it, turkeys dont vote for xmas do they

Turkeys don't vote, period. I doubt if queens " think" that much either. If she did, when harried by the workers to swarm, she would say " I'm not going out there, the statistics show there is a good chance of me dying if I do"