[MountainCamp]

As you said the hive consists of (2) boxes and they are full of bees. If as you said the queen cells are soley located at the bottom of frames, they are preparing to swarm. Yes, there is space in the hive to still draw out comb, but as far as the queen is concerned she is running out of room to lay.
Watch them over the next several days because by openning the queens cells, you have changed their timing.
Did you find any eggs? The queen stops laying shortly before they swarm.

[This message has been edited by MountainCamp (edited April 29, 2004).]

 

[scott_dixon]

didt look for eggs, I was properly suited, I was primarily looking for honey. The queens I released I squished.... Like I said though, 2 cells were already open and this was on the bottom of ONE frame. Gosh knows what was on the other.

I need to find some boxes QUICK!

 

[MountainCamp]

The odds that you kill all of the queens that were almost ready to emerge is unlikely.
But, I would guess that they will swarm shortly if there are any remaining queens left.

 

[Michael Bush]

If those queens were emerging then I think it's more likely that they ALREADY swarmed and these are the replacements, but if it's still pretty crowded it will probably have afterswarms. If not, they may be done.