Supersedure of a new queen

[Jon]

I removed a queen from a colony around mid July and requeened it a couple of weeks later after letting the colony rear a batch of cells.
In a cage, I introduced a queen which had been laying in an apidea for about 3 weeks.
About a fortnight ago I pulled a frame from the centre of the brood box and saw eggs and larvae so was happy with that. I didn't look any further.
Today I did a proper check and found 3 frames each with a single sealed supersedure cell, and the queen I had introduced was also present and laying. There were 5 frames of brood which is par for the course at this time of year. A lot of the first laid frames had hatched brood and were being relaid.
I marked and clipped the queen and removed 2 of the 3 supersedure cells to a new home which should at least eliminate any chance of losing a dodgy September swarm.
I will check again in a fortnight.
Bit of a pain in the ass when you think you have set a colony up for overwintering with a brand new queen. This situation comes up fairly regularly and it is hard to know whether to just remove all the supersedure cells or let nature take its course. Contrary to popular belief, the bees do not always know best.
The upside is that supersedure cells produce the very best queens so if you can savage a few to nucs or apideas you will get first rate queens from them.

[Neils]

I always try to savage my queen cells :)

[Adam]

I have a similar story Jon -but earlier in the summer.

I introduced a queen that had been in a mini-nuc for 3 weeks or so. (After the colony had already killed a replacement). Queen started laying well and after a few frames of brood queencells appeared. I cut them out thinking the colony was just stroppy, however queencells reappeared. Eventually I took the queen away and left one queencell which resulted in a good queen. (I also took a frame away and used that queencell). The queen I removed was put in a mini-nuc and they too decided to produce a queencell to replace her so the bees knew something I didn't!

Salvaging queen cells is something I like to do too - not wanting to discard any. This summer, one was buzzing in the cell in my fingers - piping - as I carried her to a queenless mini-nuc.

[Jon]

Another colony I requeened late August seemed to be going fine as the introduced queen from an apidea laid up 3 frames of brood. However, I found several queen cells in early September and no sign of the queen I had introduced. I left one cell which hatched around 15th September. I checked today and there was brood again over 3 frames, some just being sealed so the new queen must have started laying around 30th September or 1st October. Wednesday 28th was a perfect day around 25c so she must have taken the opportunity to fly and mate given the unexpected good weather conditions. The brood pattern was good with no gaps so that is one I will monitor carefully as a possible breeder.

[Jon]

The colony with the supersedure cells I mentioned in the first post was the one where I found an unmarked and unclipped drone laying queen last Saturday.

[Adam]

I think it's fair to say that if they try to replace the queen, there's a reason.

Another example.
Old queen in 5 frame nuc late last summer. On two attempts there was a supercedure queencell. Either broken down from the back (I assume the old queen lanced her with her sting) or the virgin dissappeared. This Spring there was no queen.
I was hoping to see a virgin mate and a clean supercedure take place but it didn't happen.