Printable View
of my three hives; my first hive swarmed about 2 weeks ago.
My apples are starting to blossom.
The other hives I have worked hard the last few weeks by removing swarm cells trying to open up the brood nest etc. the two hives are teaming with bees and I have added supers.
when should I leave the brood nest alone?
should I continue to look for swarm cells and pull the frames?
should I leave it alone?
I really do not want them to swarm
I would split them...Take the old queen with a few frames of brood, pollen and honey and get yourself a nuc going. You'll be happy you did. You can always recombine them back...or let them draw some nice comb. You'll have more options by splitting than by gambling to lose all that work force before your nectar flow.
If you've been removing swarm cells, it means they have been in preparation for swarming. The fact that the hives are "teaming" with bees is not helping. You might be delaying and if you might get lucky they might stay...but you're gambling.
I am east of you and had three swarms in the last 10 days. One gone for good...2 caught them back.
Good luck!
Your other 2 hives may have already swarmed. If you still see swarm cells stop cutting them out and do splits as apis maximus suggested, with queen cells in each hive. The queens may already be gone and you could end up with queenless colonies if you continue removing queen cells. The fact that they are teaming with bees does not mean they did not swarm. I've had booming colonies throw very large swarms and you would never know it based on the amount of bees left behind.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul4168
Do a thorough inspection and see if you can find any eggs. If you find eggs then the queen is still there and you can do a split to simulate a swarm and slow things down.