This year, because I was in a hurry (bad idea) I made several splits using uncapped cells. I pulled the frame and put into a nuc box. All have failed and, it even seems the bees simply chewed out the entire cell on most of them.
Of course a capped Queen cell would always be better but, as a rule, do uncapped ones usually fail?
My bet is that they weren't queen cells just queen cups. Many hives make a habit of having queen cups available at all times, whether they use them or not. If it doesnn't have a larvae in the cell or it isn't capped--don't count on it as a dedicated queen cell.
