To split or not to split

[ktbearpaws]

My hive is full and healthy.....making plenty of honey.
I found a few queen cells and cut them out last week,. My current marked queen was nowhere in site.
Today I found 2 more queen cells,I thought I would put them in a seperate nuc, to make a split as suggested on Mr. Bush's website.
But, again, I couldn't find my queen. There is only a handful of hatching brood and no new eggs. Does this mean there is no queen?
And if there is no queen should I go ahead with the split?
And one last question, does the presence of queen cells always signify a swarm?

[RayMarler]

I would not make the split, unless I found the queen, it sounds like the queen is gone and they are raising a replacement. If you find the queen is a different matter, are you prepared to be feeding a split the rest of the year to build it up in over wintering strength? Queen cells do not always mean a swarm, what are the other conditions in the hive, is there a strong nectar flow, what's the weather, etc.

[ktbearpaws]

There is a moderate necture flow with a mild summer. A little more rainy than usual.
The bees are leaving no room for new brood. All the comb is being filled is with honey.
Don't know if this is normal or not......this is my first hive.And from what I have heard, the queen is usually discouraged in laying, while honey production is increased this time of year.
My other hive swarmed 2-3 weeks ago. This is a TBH by the way....with plenty of ventalation.

[wcubed]

Your swarm prep season should have ended before the end of April - excluding higher elevations in the mountains where spring is delayed. I have no experience with tbh and wouldn't guess why they swarmed late. Will add a few generalities for your consideration:

Often the colony will terminate the existing Q during the period that they they are rearing a supersedure replacement. They are not going to let Old Mama interfere in the process. She becomes expendable.

Swarm prevention is different from swarm control. Prevention is done in the early season of swarm preps, and if not sucessful, and the colony commits to swarm by starting swarm cells, then the beek is forced to resort to swarm control. M. Bushes Spliting is a swarm control measure.

From your description, you likely demolished supersedure cells (normally less than 6 in temperate areas). Had the colony not had young enough brood to rear a couple more Q cells that action would have caused them to go hopelessly queenless. You were lucky. If you move those cells to a nuc, they can still reach that state.

If you would like to learn more about how the bees run their shop, go to Home, Point of View, this site. The descriptions of colony internal operations are found nowhere else that I know of.

Respectfully,
Walt Wright