This was not supposed to happen!

[rampino]

Hi Folks, I caught and hived a large swarm on 17th May. When I checked on them yesterday there were the remains of several queen cells. The number of bees has not dropped substantially and there is some capped brood, in a somewhat pepperpot pattern, but we weren’t able to find the queen. Why has this happened? It seems unusual. The books seem to indicate that when you hive a swarm they are not going to produce queen cells for quite a while, at least until the colony has built up.

 

[BugsInABox]

Hi Folks, I caught and hived a large swarm on 17th May. When I checked on them yesterday there were the remains of several queen cells. The number of bees has not dropped substantially and there is some capped brood, in a somewhat pepperpot pattern, but we weren’t able to find the queen. Why has this happened? It seems unusual. The books seem to indicate that when you hive a swarm they are not going to produce queen cells for quite a while, at least until the colony has built up.

Sounds like something happened to the original queen and they are trying to raise a new one.
If you don’t see the queen knowing whether or not you saw eggs can help.

 

[BugsInABox]

And when you say ‘the remains of several queen cells’ what do you mean?

 

[rampino]

Remains of queen cells- I should have taken a pic, but it looks as if several new queens had hatched.

 

[BugsInABox]

with a levered lid apparent?

 

[BugsInABox]

Or more like this:

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/different-age-queen-cells.33336/

 

[enrico]

So in 15 days the queen has laid eggs and the queen cells have all emerged. That is close by anyone's standards!
Not doubting you but is there any chance that you used drawn frames with these old queen cells already on?

 

[BugsInABox]

Though thinking again if you hived them on 17th only just enough time for a queen to develop. What did your hive them onto, was it drawn comb?
Could there still be a couple of sealed QCs about?

 

[BugsInABox]

Though thinking again if you hives them on 17th only just enough time for a queen to develop. What did your huge them onto, was it drawn comb?
Could there still be a couple of sealed QCs about?

Ah enrico. Crossed post.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi Folks, I caught and hived a large swarm on 17th May. When I checked on them yesterday there were the remains of several queen cells. The number of bees has not dropped substantially and there is some capped brood, in a somewhat pepperpot pattern, but we weren’t able to find the queen. Why has this happened? It seems unusual. The books seem to indicate that when you hive a swarm they are not going to produce queen cells for quite a while, at least until the colony has built up.

How many queen cells?
Swarm queens are often superseded

 

[rampino]

I hived them onto new undrawn foundation, with one frame of brood, some capped, some uncapped, with larvae a few days old at a guess. There were definitely no Queen cells on the frame.
I hived the bees late in the evening, then went to see them very early, and found that they had left the hive and gathered on the ramp up to the entrance. I put in the frame of brood and scooped most of the bees back in. At this point the rest made their way back in. When I was scooping the bees in I saw the queen briefly before she disappeared between the frames.

 

[Antipodes]

I hived them onto new undrawn foundation, with one frame of brood, some capped, some uncapped, with larvae a few days old at a guess. There were definitely no Queen cells on the frame.
I hived the bees late in the evening, then went to see them very early, and found that they had left the hive and gathered on the ramp up to the entrance. I put in the frame of brood and scooped most of the bees back in. At this point the rest made their way back in. When I was scooping the bees in I saw the queen briefly before she disappeared between the frames.

I'm unclear about the open brood frame(s) from what you've said here. Can you please clarify?

 

[rampino]

Hi Antipodes. I put in a frame which had about half the cells capped and half open containing young larvae.
I think the best explanation is from BugsInaBox which is that there was something wrong with the queen in the swarm, and they used some of the open brood to make emergency queen cells. I’ll take a picture next time I open them up, if they haven’t tidied up.

 

[enrico]

The extra info has helped. Bugs explanation is probably best bet!