[ksp107]

Did an inspection today on one of my overwintered Russian hives and found 3-4 queen cells on the bottom of one of the frames in the top deep. Also found a couple queen cells on the middle of another frame. I observed capped brood, bud didn't see any eggs and virtually no larvae. There seems to be a fair amount of bees, but is it possible the queen swarmed with some of the hive already? If she didn't, and is still in the hive, do I need to take that frame with the queen cells on the bottom and make a split?

 

[GLOCK]

If I was you I'd look for the queen and if you find her I'd make the split with her and some bees.
If she is not there I bet they swarmed . Good luck.

 

[tsmullins]

Yes, it is very possible the hive has already swarmed. The hive swarm typically before the new queens emerge.

As far as doing a split, that is hard to say. Where we live, this time of year, if I found multiple queen cells, I would do a split. A small split this time of year, in our region would have time to build up to overwinter.

Shane

 

[ksp107]

I guess I'll go back in there tomorrow and try to find her!!!!!

 

[brooksbeefarm]

Could be something happened to the queen and they are superseding? With 2 queen cells in the middle of a frame and only 3 or 4 cells on the bottom of one frame, doesn't seem to me they swarmed.JMHO

 

[Slow Drone]

Check the queen cups or cells to see if they have larvae in them.Russians notoriously usually have queen cups present.They can be tricky to determine what they're doing.I allways look in the cell to see what's up.Question would be are any of them capped?I agree though it does sound like they may have swarmed.