[drtoddh]

Hi all, 3rd year BK. Last year all my hives swarmed terrible so I was determined I was not going to let that happen again. April 27th I noticed swarm cells with brood in them in 4 of my hives. I pulled the queens and made small splits off of them. I culled the queen cells down to 2-3 cells. No one swarmed!!! 3/4 requeened and are doing well. The other has laying workers in it now despite it being my biggest hive, but that's another story.

Today I checked one of the hives again, just to make sure her pattern was okay. Started seeing drone in drone cells at the bottom of the frames. Good worker pattern that is just starting to cap 2 frames full and about 8 or 9 QUEEN CELLS ON THE BOTTOMS OF TWO FRAMES!!!! What is going on?? She just started laying a week and half ago. Wouldn't the swarm impulse be gone? I don't know what to do now. I put her in a cage in the hive in case you all tell me to make another split. This hive is populous but not congested. They have almost filled 1 honey super and I am putting the second on today. Will they be able to tolerate another period of queenlessness if I take her out? She just started to lay a week and a half ago. Thanks, Todd

 

[RayMarler]

Some bees just like to swarm. We call them swarmy bees. Do as you please with them.

Destroying all the cells (make sure queen is in there first) and checkerboarding that added super with the existing super will give space above the brood so maybe they will cancel swarming, This works about as often as it doesn't. The other option is to do again what you did before. Another option is to cut out the cells and make some nucs with them. Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[drtoddh]

I pulled the queen and a frame of bees. Will see where it goes from here. Thanks

 

[Roland]

Good, Please report back with results.

Crazy Roland