Is there a way to tell if a hive has a bad queen or is simply doing a swarm for reproductive reasons?
I have some Hawaiian queens that did great laying patterns but now have big peanut shaped queen cells. My worry is that I have split out the hive with the queen cells and left it to recover from swarming tendency. I usually can't find the queen as she is not marked, if the hive has no queen and I take the queen cells, I take it that it sets that hive back. I know i can combine the split once the queen cells hatch and i have a laying queen, but besides finding the queen is there something i can do to tell if there is a queen in there? I don't see any eggs, just three frames with sealed brood. Is there a timeline to wait to see if she starts to lay again? Or should I just combine as soon as the split has a mated queen?
If you did not see any eggs but did see queen cells she may be slimming down to swarm. You could make nucs with the queen cells and then combine afterwards.