Swarm cells from a new hive

[Steve Johnson]

I bought a nuc hive 7 weeks ago and put it in a 10 frame box the next day. I added a 2nd hive body about 2 weeks ago and its about 75% drawn out. During my inspection today i found 5 swarm cells. Theres plenty of room in the hive. ive never seen them beard. I also saw plenty of eggs and brood and the top box was very heavy with nectar and capped honey. None of the swarm cells had anything in them that I could see. Are they in the beginning stages or what ? should I wait a few days and see if there is larve and then split the hives into 2 ?

These could be old for all i know. I quit inspecting every single frame last week once i found eggs, and saw that they looked good.

[psfred]

Those are queen cups. No larvae, no royal jelly, they are just there for in case the bees need them.

All that new space sometimes makes the bees "think" the queen isn't up to snuff, and they will build queen cups, then take them down or ignore them as the queen starts to fill out the new brood space.

Check again in a few days and see if there are larvae in them. If not, don't worry, they are just "insurance".

They were made with old wax, that's why they are dark, and may have been there when you got the hive.

Peter

[Steve Johnson]

Exactly the type of answer I was hoping for. Thank you so much.

[Keth Comollo]

Yep. Just queen cups. If you start to see them adding a little bit of a thin lip to those cups and start to see white wax dappled around the outside then it is time to be more vigilant but for now, from the picture you show, I wouldn't worry at all. Sometimes I just pinch them closed to slow them down a wee bit.