One hive of four has no eggs, a small amt of capped brood and pollen in lower deep. Upper deep has four frames of honey, small amt of capped brood, 3 frames of eggs and young larva. First medium honey super has five frames with capped brood, eggs and larva (no queen excluder) and honey. Second honey super has some recently gathered honey thanks to recent rains. I always find swarm cells when I tip upper deep which made sense to me when it was too full of honey early in season due to queen excluder and honey supers with only foundation. I cut out 3 well formed swarm cells yesterday since I saw eggs. (I was first concerned about being queenless with no eggs in lower deep). Started with 5 frame nuc and new queen and she lays a good pattern but I need her to lay in the lower deep and not honey super and I would have liked to have seen more eggs. Could she have slowed down for recent dry weather and now be picking up? Next time I see her shall I place her into lower deep?
So, what do you think? Divide, requeen, wait and see, other ideas? Thankyou in advance.
i'd leave it be. to late in your season to be messing with it.
Leave them alone. They'll do what they think they need to do on their own.
>I cut out 3 well formed swarm cells yesterday since I saw eggs.
Where were the cells? Eggs just mean a queen was there three days ago. It doesn't mean she's there now.
I would try to head off the swarm but I'd plan on recombining for winter. Now that you cut out the swarm cells (which I wouldn't have) I'd go back in a few days and see what they decided. If you have more I'd remove the old queen with a couple of frames of brood and honey and make a split just to try to keep them from swarming. You can recombine it later, since it's getting late in the year to build it up for winter. But if the old queen is missing they can raise a new one and you can kill the old one before you recombine. That way they are less likely to end up queenless and less likely to swarm.
Where were the queen cells located? Were they swarm or supercedure cells? Charlie
The queen cells were at the bottom of frames.
If I split as you say, MB, I presume the honey super with honey would need to come off and be placed on top of the inner cover for them to bring down into the hive? And could I just leave the other honey super with brood in it for a while until brood emerges? Yes, it would be easier with all mediums but I will work towards that next year. Should I make my split into the nearly empty lower deep brood box or would a 5 frame nuc box be better? Would it work OK to combine nuc with a hive with two deep boxes?---Or, could I find the queen, place her in the medium honey super with brood and place the honey super with honey on top of that and leave the 2 deeps to hatch out a new queen? This hive has been making swarm cells all summer. Also, it tipped over about two and a half weeks ago but the bees and I seem to be recovering :).