Queen cells....what to do?

Just inspected one of my hives today to find 4 capped queen cells. aaaagh!! I last inspected about 7 days ago (whilst treating with Apiguard) and found a few uncapped q cells and presumed they were just play cups. This hive has a very new q in it and she is just coming into lay with hardly any eggs to see yet.

So last week I was full of hope for this colony now I am flummoxed and not sure what to do now as it is so late in the season. There must be something wrong with her if they are making new qc's. Please, any advice......

Presuming is not a good policy with beekeeping. Presumably you did not check them for larvae?

About seven days is not good enough. If five they would have had larvae in them, nine days, they may not have.

Either way, you should have either checked them properly or inspected within capping time, to know what was going on.

Anyway you now need to decide whether to leave one or two of them (hopefully two, as you do not know whether one or both is/are duff), or whether to risk it and break down the cells.

You have five colonies so it is not exatly a 'two hive dilema'. Make up your own mind and don't expect to make a concensus decision, as they can easily be wrong and mare, more likely than not.

RAB