Well, This is the first spring for me and the girls however, despite or inspite of my attempts I had 1 hive of the 2 I have swarm last wed.
I had put supers on both hives the 1st of april and one hive started and is filling the super quickly(like ducks to water) while the other hive would not work thier super. The hive that would not work their super swarmed last wed.(traitors) and are still not working their super. I checked the swarmed hive last friday and discovered what appear to be unhatched supercedure cells. I call them supercedure cells be cause they are of like age and are near the middle of the frames in the upper hive body. If the old queen needed to be superceded maybe it's good ridance to bad rubbish. Fortunatly it happened early in the season as our flow don't start till May sometime ( the word from a local beek) and from what I read the new queen should hatch, breed and begin laying within a couple of weeks after the swarm so maybe they will get back into full production though both hives appear to be strong including the hive that swarmed. Anyway there it is my first swarm story. sure to happen many times in the future. Brad