Supercedure Cells

[Les]

At my Sister's watching over her after cataract surgery.  Too much time on my hands and my mind starts to wander.  I have a NUC that currently has four supercedure cells.  I was thinking of leaving two in the NUC and cutting out the other two and starting another NUC.  My two hives are booming with brood and honey, so I thought I would take a couple frames of brood and honey from one of the hives to start the NUC.  Does this sound like a good plan?  If so, how do you attach the cut out to the frame without crushing the queen cell?

P.S.  Update on the OTS..... Had no luck with them making a queen cell.  They just kept repairing the area where I altered the cells.  Not giving up though!

[apisbees]

on the OTS you didn't break the cells deep enough or far enough down the frame under the cells.
press them into the comb surface the wax will be warm and soft due the the heat generated by the bees also the queen cell is longer than the queen and she is in the cell with her head facing down with empty space where the royal jelly was places in the cell. Deforming the top of the cell a little bit will not effect the queen as she is not tight in that part of the cell. You can also friction fit the cell between 2 top bars or frames. they also make cell protectors or you could f ashen one out of a hair roller that is close to the right size.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/category/jz-bz-cell-protectors-and-queen-cages.html

[Jen]

Hi Les! So happy to see  you are doing this  Apis encourages me to cut out cells and transplant them into nucs this spring. I did it, scared at first, but it's pretty much a piece of cake. And Fun!

A vid from Fat Bee Man


 

[Les]

Finally got into the hive now that the rains have stopped.  My plan to harvest two queen supercedure cells went up in smoke.  By the time I got back into the Nuc, all four queen cells were torn down.  I found larva ....my eyes still cannot pick out eggs.  However, I cannot find the queen.  By any chance would a queen take a mating flight, come back to the hive to lay eggs and then go back out for more mating flights?

[apisbees]

No Les She mates then takes a few days to finish develop for egg laying Then lays till she has no more to give, or the bees decide to replace her.