I went into my strongest hive for the first time since mid-June today. We're in a drought and the dearth hit in early June this year, so I was not too worried about them. I simply wanted to see how things were going, maybe do a powered sugar dump and record how many frames of honey they had.
They are in 2 deeps and 1 medium. Both deeps were half full of honey, 3 or 4 frames of pollen, lots of drone cells (comparatively speaking), a fair amount of capped worker brood and some larva. Never found the queen or saw eggs (it was late in the afternoon and hard to see.)
But, I did find 8 capped queen cells. I found another 4 or 5 that appeared torn open. I have no idea if these were just failures or a bunch of virgins were running around and maybe my queen already hit the road.
Regardless, I decided to act (and this is what I am looking for comments on.) I decided to go ahead and split them. I'm guessing that I will need to feed both hives later in August or so (and maybe sooner), but I figured I might as well try to take advantage of all of these queens coming along.
Would other folks here have done differently? Just let them work it out and swarm/supercede, since it is so late in the year? Or maybe try to destroy the queen cells (although this seems futile, since one of the torn open ones probably means a virgin is around).
At any rate, just looking for feedback or critiques here. This is only my second year, so it's the first time I have come across swarm cells at the end of July...
They are in 2 deeps and 1 medium. Both deeps were half full of honey, 3 or 4 frames of pollen, lots of drone cells (comparatively speaking), a fair amount of capped worker brood and some larva. Never found the queen or saw eggs (it was late in the afternoon and hard to see.)
But, I did find 8 capped queen cells. I found another 4 or 5 that appeared torn open. I have no idea if these were just failures or a bunch of virgins were running around and maybe my queen already hit the road.
Regardless, I decided to act (and this is what I am looking for comments on.) I decided to go ahead and split them. I'm guessing that I will need to feed both hives later in August or so (and maybe sooner), but I figured I might as well try to take advantage of all of these queens coming along.
Would other folks here have done differently? Just let them work it out and swarm/supercede, since it is so late in the year? Or maybe try to destroy the queen cells (although this seems futile, since one of the torn open ones probably means a virgin is around).
At any rate, just looking for feedback or critiques here. This is only my second year, so it's the first time I have come across swarm cells at the end of July...