Cells that have been back-filled vs royal jelly?

[Wandering Man]

We did our hive inspection yesterday and could not find the queen, eggs, or young larvae.  There were seven or eight queen cells embedded in the comb, probably emergency cells.  Three or four were empty, and the others had larvae in them.  We removed all that we found.

Several of the frames had capped brood around the edge of the frame, and the center of the frame looked like it was filled with liquid.  Would this be nectar?  Is this what back-filling looks like?  Or could it be larvae swimming in royal jelly? 

Will bees back-fill when no one is laying eggs?  There is plenty of room in the medium super above the second deep.

[Perry]

It sure sounds like the bees are back filling the brood cells as the brood emerges with nectar alright.
Why did you remove the queen cells if you could not find the queen, eggs or larvae? You may have just removed the only chance they had to requeen themselves. I would put in a frame with some eggs on it from another hive and see if they go about trying to raise a queen.

[Wandering Man]

We've ordered a new queen. She won't arrive until Monday evening, and we won't get to install her until Tuesday am. Will that be too long?

After reading that emergency queens aren't the best way to go, I figured it would be better to bring in a new pre-bred queen.

[Jen]

I would agree with Perry, it does sound like back fill with nectar. I deal with that all the time. If the back fill looks like water in the cells, that would be nectar. If it were royal jelly if would have a noticeable milky-ness to it.

Curious, were the queen cells in the middle of the frame, or along the bottom edge?

Also curious as to why emergency queens are not the best way to go?

[Wandering Man]

Clear liquid.

All of the queen cells were in the middle of the frames. None were on the bottom.

I think I'd read that the bees hadn't had a chance to build a proper queen cup for the egg to be laid in. That somehow this made for an inferior queen.

[Jen]

Yep nectar

Now, Iddee used to say that queen cells can be anywhere on the frame, depends where the eggs are. But generally the middle of the frame says supercedure or emergency.

Wman, is there any laying room in this hive where you're going to put your new queen?

[Wandering Man]

Yes. We pulled two frames of brood and honey because of cross comb.

The frames we pulled were foundationless. I've not had much luck with foundationless frames.