Beekeeping > Raising Queens

Did I miss a supercedure cell?

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Bakersdozen:
In the hive in question, I made a note that I saw lots of capped brood on 4/24. I must have put on a queen excluder and honey super about 2 weeks ago.  Today I checked the super to see if they were bringing in honey.  I found capped worker brood in my super.  Ugh! The inner cover is notched to allow for an upper entrance.  Is my math right?  Last notation was 37 days ago.  Subtract at least 9 days for capped brood. Subtract approximately 23 days for a new queen to be reared, mated, and productive.  Depending on the age of the queen cell that I missed, it is possible that they superceded the queen and reared a new one?  Right?  BTW, there was 0 eggs and larvae in the brood boxes under the queen excluder. 

I removed the queen excluder and let her go.  I don't like the idea of losing 10 frames of comb in a super, but too late.

The15thMember:
Are you sure you didn't just accidentally trap the queen in the honey super? 

iddee:
Like 15, I suspect you missed the queen and locked her in the super.

Either or, an egg laid today can produce a laying queen in 21 days, capped brood in 30. Any queen cell could produce capped brood in a lot less than 37 days.

Bakersdozen:
I might have trapped her in the super if she was on the inner cover when I put it back on top of the super.  The first thought was that she was small and slipped through the queen excluder. This spring I did get some queens that were on the small side.  She had been laying great when I put the super on.

iddee:
That's possible. I have had queens get through excluders, but it is doubtful she would leave brood to go into a broodless super.

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