Folks, I don't know what to make of my hives. I have six hives, five of which made it through winter fine and are thriving, one died out..starved actually. I was gone for two weeks and didn't get to check them until a week ago. All five were going strong. Four had swarm cells and a some supercedure cells in the middle of some of the frames. Most of the swarm and supercedure cells were capped. All five hives were full of nectar, some capped brood, but I didn't see much young brood. None of the hives had swamred. Each hive has at least two supers on. But given the nectar bound brood nest and the swarm cells I figured swarming was imminent. I went ahead and added a thrid deep to the four hives and checkerboarded the frames of the second deep with some drawn, but mostly foundation-only frames from the new third box. I checked all hives agian last weekend, and none had swarmed yet, but they all continued to have capped swarm cells and some supercedure cells. And no swarmed hive yet either. I went ahead and moved every frame from the four hives that had any swarm cells to the dead-out hive, trying to make sure the queens were not on them. So, after all this, what happened/ is happening?
I may have moved a queen from one hive to the dead-out, but I don't know which hive she may have come from, or if she is indeed the old queen, and not a young one that just emerged. Will my removal of frames with swarm cells and opening the brood nest with (mostly) undrawn frames stop their swarming? And what should I do about the potentially queenless hive? Given how little new brood waspresent in all hives I doubt I will be able to identify which hive is potentially queenless...any other signs that may tell that? Wha should I do, or should have done? Any ideas? Suggestions? Answers? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the rambling, but this is really baffling.
I may have moved a queen from one hive to the dead-out, but I don't know which hive she may have come from, or if she is indeed the old queen, and not a young one that just emerged. Will my removal of frames with swarm cells and opening the brood nest with (mostly) undrawn frames stop their swarming? And what should I do about the potentially queenless hive? Given how little new brood waspresent in all hives I doubt I will be able to identify which hive is potentially queenless...any other signs that may tell that? Wha should I do, or should have done? Any ideas? Suggestions? Answers? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the rambling, but this is really baffling.