[mattallen]

So this year is my first foray into beekeeping. My uncle has done it as long as I can remember and it has always interested me. I got a 5 frame nuc on 5/6/14. I moved it into a 10 frame langstroth deep immediately and put a feeder on with 1:1 syrup. Three of the frames were pretty full and the two outer frames were more or less empty with some drawn comb. I went into the hive on 5/18/14 and noticed that the 10 frames were all filled except for about two of them. I noticed I had about 5 swarm cells on the bottom of one frame (and only one frame). I killed all of the swarm cells (some of them were capped with some decent sized brood) and moved that frame along with two more frames of brood to a new deep box and placed that on top of the existing one. I replaced those frames in the lower box with undrawn foundation frames. I saw a large number of new eggs so I don't think the queen is ready to take off since she's still laying. Now I'm not sure what to do or if what I've done was the best idea. I'm not worried about a honey crop and would like to keep as many bees as possible. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[Colobee]

As long as you have eggs in a solid pattern, and larvae & capped brood, things are probably going to be OK. Place undrawn foundation along the outsides of the broodnest to promote and retain it's integrity. Next time find your queen first, before killing all the queen cells, or put those queen cells above a double screen board or double queen excluder, and provide an upper entrance, for insurance.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

The swarm cells may have been started while the bees were in the nuc box. I have seen nucs swarm within a week of delivery and have heard of nucs swarming within a day of delivery. Though if you managed to get all of the swarm cells, it sounds like you have protected your investment.

 

[mattallen]

Thank you both for the replies! I was definitely surprised having swarm cells this early! I will keep all of this in mind. Egg pattern looks good and I have plenty of capped brood. Thanks again!

 

[Kakalakee]

One of my nucs swarmed, but I helped encourage it by likely overfeeding with a top feeder. I have gotten the first year beek experience now of trying to do a full hive check on a queenless hive. The difference in temperament in the bees was pretty startling. I actually had one sting me through a brand new set of leather gloves. The sound they were making and general agitation level alone (while using smoke) was enough to tell me the queen had absconded (that, and the noticeably smaller # of hive occupants and - once I had gotten into the hive, the queen cells I found). Going to leave them be, and check in 3 weeks to see if I'm seeing new eggs and larvae. And going to cool it with the feeding from here on out.