Supercedure cells - can I pinch them and just add a new queen?

Beekeeping - Basics
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Today I observed 3 supercedure looking cells (face of frames, middle sort of area) under construction. They aren’t capped, don’t seem “juicy” and didn’t seem to have an egg inside but the lighting wasn’t ideal to see.

This queen was raised by the hive late winter and I’m assuming she wasn’t well bred. The hive has performed pretty poorly, i.e. 2 months into spring they are still a single box no honey super. Laying pattern seemed ok but wasn’t really spread over that many of the frames – certainly not wall-to-wall like my other hive.

Anyway, rather than waiting for the hive to actually superceed the current queen, can I just pinch the empty cups and put a new queen in?

I already found and removed the current queen today, she’s in my queen catcher with a couple of attendants inside. The local bee shop is holding a queen for me til tomorrow while I decide what to do.

Edit: there are still eggs, larve and brood in the hive - confirmed that while taking current queen out.

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If the queen has been out of the hive for long enough for the bees to make a “queenless roar” (higher pitched, louder, frantic sounding buzzing), then you can just put the new queen in - today if you like. The roar usually begins when she has been out of the hive for about an hour. You don’t really need to destroy the queen cells, but you can if it makes you feel better.

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Thanks Dawn - much appreciated. I might just squash them anyway so it’s obvious in future if they draw new ones.

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