[Nanook]

So I went into my hive to check on the girls to evaluate things for a possible split...When I pulled out one of the frames there were queen cells attached to the frames below and pulled them apart...Now I'm worried that if and when the hive swarms I'll be left with a queenless hive...Ideas on how to handle this situation? Should I do a spilt with the old queen and re queen the exisitng hive? Or wait and see what happens...

 

[RayMarler]

Normally the comb that gets drawn between the boxes in the space between the upper and lower box of frames is drone cells. Can you post a picture? I think it's most likely they are drone cells and your hive will be fine.

 

[Nanook]

Normally the comb that gets drawn between the boxes in the space between the upper and lower box of frames is drone cells. Can you post a picture? I think it's most likely they are drone cells and your hive will be fine.

No pic , I hear you just seemed a bit too large for a drone and there where 3 distinct cells, maybe they weren't attached and I just ripped them when I removed the frame....I'll just wait and see...Thanks

 

[RayMarler]

If they were queen cells, not much you can do but wait or check through the hive and see if there are more, and if you have a current queen in the hive. As for doing a split, are there other cells? Is there eggs? Doing a split would be up to you, what you want from the hive. Do you want more beehives?

 

[Belewsboy]

If they are capped queen cells, then your girls may have made up their mind to swarm. You may want to consider splitting the hive and putting your queen in the new hive. If there are eggs in the original hive, they will make new queen cells. If no eggs, take a frame from another hive w/ eggs or wait till you have some eggs from the split and place that frame in your queenless hive...or buy a queen.

 

[Nanook]

If they are capped queen cells, then your girls may have made up their mind to swarm. You may want to consider splitting the hive and putting your queen in the new hive. If there are eggs in the original hive, they will make new queen cells. If no eggs, take a frame from another hive w/ eggs or wait till you have some eggs from the split and place that frame in your queenless hive...or buy a queen.

I see no eggs, that is why I think they are going to swarm, there is a ton of capped brood..I have 2 other hives, that are new splits that I purchased, so I can get egss, as you suggest, or buy a queen and requeen if need bee...Initially I tried to avoid the hive from swarming by adding frames , then if that didn't work, which it didn't i was going to do a split with the old queen, and that is when I ripped the queen cells...