[wholesomedirt]

I have two hives. The more successful of the two drew out two supers in about 45 days. I added a third super two weeks ago. Went out today and found them packed in the two lower supers and one capped queen cell. I inspected 7 days ago and saw the cup and thought it was empty but now it's capped. With two to three weeks left in this flow, should I pull that frame with the queen cell and put it in a five frame nuc? Or should I borrow four frames of brood and pollen/honey from my other hives and put them in an 8 frame medium box? I don't feel either hive is strong enough to split, but both could contribute to the cause. But then again that's why I'm here looking for input.

 

[Tenbears]

a single queen cell? are you sure you have a viable queen? This does not sound like swarm preparation. More like emergency supercedure.

 

[Colobee]

Bottom board, brood chamber minus frame with QC, queen excluder, supers, queen excluder, new box with QC. If its an emergency or supersedure QC, the hive retains the queen (remove excluders and rebuild as original). If not, you have a split (which can also be re-united to retain colony strength). All assuming the new queen succeeds in mating/laying.

 

[wholesomedirt]

It was a single cell. It had larvae, capped brood, and eggs. I did not see her, but I was not looking closely either. I know she was there last week. They were so congested in the two lower boxes that there were hundreds on the inside walls of the super.