Supersedure cells

 

Supersedure cells are build during the process by which bees raise a new queen.

The workers will flood some cells where a larva has just emerged , with royal jelly. The worker bees then build a larger queen cell from the normal sized worker cell and it pop out vertically from the face of the brood comb.

emergency queen cell

 Bees decide to raise a new queen for different reasons, some of them are:

  • The reigning queen is too old
  • She is not laying well (as the queen ages, her pheromone output diminishes.
  • The queen is injured
  • The queen has a disease
  • The workers killed the queen

When a new queen is available, the workers will kill the reigning queen by “balling” her which means that they clustered tightly around her until she dies from overheating.