After my inspection Saturday my bottom 8 frame brood deep is pretty full. The outside frames are honey, half capped and the rest are pretty much brood/honey in the corners with some pollen throughout. Queen is there and active. My 8 frame deep honey super above has 4 frames of honey, also about 1/2 capped but not much on the other 4. I also have mild bearding so the bottom brooder is cozy. Each of my last 2 inspections I've destroyed 1 queen cell. I'd like to keep it to 1 brood box as I'm pretty new but I do have a medium box with 8 frames of foundation ready to go if need be. Keep an eye on it and leave them alone or put the medium on as a 2nd brood chamber? Or checkerboard the top honey super so instead of EEHHHEE it would be EHEHHEHE?
I would checkerboard the deep super and add the honey super. If they don't do anything in a week then take it off for a while
Are the queen cells you are destroying swarm cells or supersedure cells?
When you lift the lid are the top of the frames covered in bees, bearding is not always overcrowding. Refer back to topic on bearding.
I don't know of a better way to kill a hive then destroying queen cells. One cell means supercedure. The queen is failing or they want to replace her for another reason. Swarm cells are in multiplies and once made, she is going to swarm. Destroying them will get you nothing but a dead hive.
I try never to destroy queen cells. Either they are superseding or they raising an emergency queen or they are swarming. Under none of those conditions would I destroy the queen cells. If they are swarming I would split them. Otherwise I would leave them alone. In any case I would not destroy the cells.
Wow, ok, guess I won't do that anymore. Lots of conflicting advice to go through. Some say to do that to avoid swarming. I have read up on bearding and am not concerned about it, I probably worry too much anyways.