Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: csalt on May 14, 2010, 05:50:48 PM

Title: Will they swarm
Post by: csalt on May 14, 2010, 05:50:48 PM
 I checked my hive today  1 deep full of brood and honey except the end frames and 1 med about 70% full of honey and a little brood. I found 1 capped swarm cell on the bottom of  a frame in the deep box. I added a queen excluder and 1 more med and scraped the queen cell off and stuck it between the frames of another hive that i cant find the queen or eggs but assorted sizes of brood inn. Do you think the hive will swarm or were they just crowded?
Title: Re: Will they swarm
Post by: Michael Bush on May 15, 2010, 10:12:58 AM
I'd have to see the overall state of the hive.  Is it packed with bees?  Is it very populated.  "scraped" doesn't sound very good... "carefully cut" would be better...
Title: Re: Will they swarm
Post by: csalt on May 16, 2010, 02:05:36 PM
Yes it's pretty packed i think, but this is my first hive so i don't have one to compare but from pictures and what i've read on this forum it sounds like it's pretty full. I scraped it with a sharp hive tool but next time i'll cut it with a razor knife.
Title: Re: Will they swarm
Post by: Michael Bush on May 17, 2010, 01:11:26 AM
If there is no room to expand, and bees wall to wall, then it's full and probably planning to swarm.