I did another inspection today of one of my hives which seemed to do well over the winter--a lot of brood earlier, with bees everywhere. Today, the inspection revealed less bees, hardly any brood at all, with a few open queen cells, some in the middle of the frame and at least one on the bottom of a frame. There seemed to be a huge number of drones with some frames almost covered with drones. So what do I have now? a swarmed hive, or one that is queenless with laying workers? I could not smell anything bad, but some of the capped brood that I saw were decaying, and I have to admit, a bit stringy. So is this foulbrood? They have a whole super full of honey, so they had been doing well over the winter....I should have been on top of them sooner, but have been a bit late in getting things set up for this year. My other two hives seem to be fine with plenty of brood.
they are ready or already have swarmed. Look into queen cells, if yoy see a larvae and royal jelly(white), than they haven't hatched yet. Queen cells on bottom are usually swarm cells. Supercedure are found in middle of frame.