[dickensdoc]

I have a hive of Russian's that have a swarm cell on them. The larva looks to be 5 to 6 days old. I have another hive of Russian's that can not seem to get off the ground, this hive has a deep and a medium brood bodies on it with the medium on bottom. That is where the queen is laying, but she is only laying 3 frames of brood in a 10 frame box and will not move up. What I thought about doing is to remove the queen out of the weak hive give them a day then take 3 frames of brood some nurse bee's and the queen out of the hive with the swarm cell put a piece of news paper between the medium and the deep to introduce the new queen and her group of bees with the bees that are now queen lees. The weak hive only has about 3 or 4 thousand bees. This is the weakest hive in my apiary. I have splits and swarm captuer that are stronger. Well I could use some advise.

 

[mike haney]

sounds like a plan but wait till they cap the queen cell before you take the queen. they may swarm anyway (with the virgin) leaveing you with 2 very weak hives. then you can combine them. good luck,mike

 

[hfrysinger]

Just one queen cell in the hive? That is unusual for swarming. Are you sure it is not a supersedure queen cell?

 

[dickensdoc]

There are others but no egg or larva . The one has a larva looks to be about 5 days old and the cell is on the bottom of the frame.