Manage your hives in the early spring. My first hive I didn't manage it for a swarm. Everything seemed ok. But they did swarm. I was able to catch that swarmed and started a second hive.
However, the first hive went queenless for some reason. I inspected a couple of weeks after the swarm, and the first hive did not have any eggs, or brood.
So upon Iddee's advice I added a frame of eggs and brood from the swarm hive to the first hive, and if they need a queen they will make one. I inspected today and sure enough there were several queen cells. Great I thought, until I started looking at the other frames in both deeps. Everyone was honey bound, no where for the queen to lay once she starts.
I have a medium super on top, but it looks like I need to take some honey bound frames and add some empty's. It is kind of a hassle.
So make sure you manage in the early spring, it will save a lot of headaches.
The most critical time to manage hives is in the spring, if the hives haven't been managed properly by May 1, it is usually too late to fix the track they are on such as swarming etc.
After June 1st, the only management that can be done is requeening and harvesting until fall when the management must switch to providing enough stores for the hive(s) to overwinter.
My opinion, I think if you are in the south you need to use two deep brood chambers in the spring, at least until after your main flow. If I have a large colony I just use two broods year round. :)doak
ps. don't know what is wrong, my machine is acting up, may loose y'all for a while