How did that happen?

[Iddee]

One day last week I pulled a nuc from each of two hives. The frame with the queen, an open brood frame, a capped brood frame, and two pollen/honey frames. Today I checked them for queen cells, as they should have made new queens from the eggs I left.

One was as it should be, with capped brood and a number of queen cells. Right on schedule.

The other one, tho, is a complete mystery. It has eggs, larva of all ages, and capped brood. It shows no sign of ever being queenless. How can that happen? Anyone have any ideas???

[indypartridge]

The other one, tho, is a complete mystery. It has eggs, larva of all ages, and capped brood. It shows no sign of ever being queenless. How can that happen? Anyone have any ideas???
My guess is that you found only one of the two queens that were in the hive when you made up your nuc. I've read that a hive may occasionally have a mother-daughter pair of queens for short period. Perhaps intending to swarm but delayed by weather?

[barry42001]

Perhaps if you look around you can find a supersedure cell somewhere the remnants of one. The reading I have done ( never actually observed it ) is that both queens will lay side by side untill one day one will dissappear no swarm just be balled by workers once they make sure the younger one is working well--thats the books say anyway should be able to find the cell cup from supersedure cell, that I have seen.
Barry