Is a swarm possible in the first 6 weeks?

[chrismbm]

We're new at this. I'm concerned that our first set of bees may be getting ready to swarm. It's only been about 5 weeks since we installed our bees, but today, I saw a lot of drone activity. We're going to check the hive again tomorrow - when we looked last week, I saw supercedure cells as well as what I thought were swarm cells (top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of frames). Any input?

[Scotty]

Is the Queen there? Do you see any eggs? She might have died and they're trying to raise a new one.

[Michael Bush]

Swarm cells are almost always hanging off the bottom of the frame. Not on the sides of the comb.

A queen cup, is not a queen cell (by my definition anyway). If there is a round cup with no larvae and no egg in it, it's a "just in case we need it" cup. Don't worry about it. If they are feeding a queen cell on the sides of the comb, then it's a supercedure cell. I'd let them. As mentioned, something may have happened to the queen or she's failing in some way.

It is possible they are trying to swarm, but you haven't given me any reason to beleive they are. Drone activity is more related to the weather and drone congregation areas.

If it's crowded enough a package CAN swarm in six weeks, but it's not likely.

[Sparky]

I started 2 hives this year. I let the rob out an old hive from last year that didnt make it due to a queen loss. Each hive was given 3 frames of drawn comb, and the rest foundation. Because of the weather, I could not get into them to check them for 2 weeks. When I did, both hives had all 10 frames fully drawn, and FULL of brood and honey. I put on a super then, and closed them up. Next check, it seemed that one hive was not using its super, but was FULL of bees. 5 weeks to the day that they where hives, it cast off a good size swarm. So, yes it possable, but I would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.

Sparky