experienced beeks,
here's the situation: russian bees
Last week I noticed queen cups on a full hive inspection, but no larvae in the cups. I've got 2 deeps and a medium that have brood in them. I pulled out some of the stored honey and put in 3 deep frames of undrawn foundation. (That was all I had made up at the time.) I shifted the medium above a queen excluder and added a shallow of undrawn foundation.
The queen was still laying a good solid brood pattern.
Going back today, I found more queen cells this time several with larvae in them, and one capped in the lower super. (I must have missed it last week.) There are plenty of eggs and larvae in the upper super, so it looks like the queen is still laying. I removed more honey from the brood nest, but I'm worried it's too late. I'm planning to add another shallow and a upper entrance tomorrow.
It looks like this hive wants to swarm. Any advice on what I else can do to prevent it? (Apparently no one told them they're supposed to wait until June to swarm around here.)
Kev
Could do a split, and add the laying queen in the new set up. Let them make a new queen in the old set up.
Now, with Russians you never know what their intentions really are, they have a tendancy to make swarm cells, then tear them down, but then again, they could swarm out as well.
You've given them room, but, if their mind's are made up to swarm, they will.
Splitting the hive up could be your best option, and hey, another colony for you.
By splitting the colony up & adding the laying queen to the split, you could fool them into thinking they've swarmed, a beautiful thing indeed.
...JP
Thanks, I'll see how they do with even more space, while I get the equipment ready for a split.
kev