Help - Queen Cells

[beekeeper28]

I have a hive that was ful of bees and they started some swarm cells. I cut those out and made a split taking the old queen out. I installed a new marked queen in the original hive. It rained for several days and I was unable to get back into the hive. I check it this weekend the queen cage was empty and the hive had brood in various stages. It seemed as full as it was before I made the split. I could not see the new queen, eggs. The hive had a few swarm cells and supersedure cells on almost every frame. I have supers on that needs foundation pulled out but it seems that they are not interested in the foundation. I think the hive is getting honey bound. I don't want this hive to swarm with my new queen, what can I do? Why are they build super cells when they just released a new queen?

[Michael Bush]

>I installed a new marked queen in the original hive.

What was your expectation of the new queen? That she would head off a swarm? Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. I think I'd have let them hatch one.

>It seemed as full as it was before I made the split. I could not see the new queen, eggs.

Sometimes the swarm is small it's not noticable to you.

>The hive had a few swarm cells and supersedure cells on almost every frame.

Sounds like they still intend to swarm. I'd split them into several nucs and let them all raise a queen. Then you can decide if you want to recombine or have several hives.

>I think the hive is getting honey bound. I don't want this hive to swarm with my new queen, what can I do?

Doesn't sound like your new queen is there.

>Why are they build super cells when they just released a new queen?

Either she swarmed or they don't care for her or they are still going to swarm. The mixture of both supercedure and swarm cells I would interpret as swarming. But sometimes when you get a new queen they will start a supercedure cell or two and then tear them up after a few days. I figure they are "just in case" cells. If they have capped the queen cells they are intent on it.