Dead Queen cells?

[IABeeMan]

I hived 4 packages in early april. So far 3 are booming and have began to pack supers already. The 4th has been rather slow to build and has yet to draw more than a frame or 2 in the top box. At first I thought maybe they were just slower or suffered high drift in early days since all 4 are close to each other. A little over a week ago I looked the weak hive over frame by fram and discovered a several swarm cells and that the outer 2 or 3 frames were almost solid drone cells. To try to avoid the swarm I took a frame that had the "best" looking swarm cells which it had 2 cells on it and using that frame and a couple frames of eggs/with nurse bees and a couploe frames of honey/pollen and made a split in hopes of cutting the swarm off. I cut out the remaining queen cells in the original hive. I cot out a total of 5 or 6. I took one of the better looking cells I cut out and took back to the house with me and cut it open. I discovered that the larva was not dried out but deff was not right. It was shrukened to about 1/4 the size it should. I went back 7days after making the split and the 2 cells I left in still had not been capped. This being only my 2nd year I am unsure what might have taken place or what I might do differently. I was in hopes of making the split and if the new queen turns out to be a good layer pinching the drone layer and combining the 2 hives back to make a strong hive.

[tecumseh]

Iowa Bee Man writes:
A little over a week ago I looked the weak hive over frame by fram and discovered a several swarm cells and that the outer 2 or 3 frames were almost solid drone cells.

tecumseh replies: are you sure they were not supersceding a failing queen? perhaps a drone layer... or even worse a laying worker?

did you see the queen or any evidence of eggs or worker larvae?

your information seems incomplete???? but the situation doesn't really sound like swarming.

if unsure in regards to my questions the first 'insurance' I would take out would be to remove a frame of very green brood from the healthy hive and place it directly into the middle of the poor doing hive.

[Michael Bush]

>if unsure in regards to my questions the first 'insurance' I would take out would be to remove a frame of very green brood from the healthy hive and place it directly into the middle of the poor doing hive.

When in doubt, it's hard to beat that advice. It gives the bees the resources to deal with the problem while not interfering too much with whatever they might be trying to do.