[drlonzo]

First a little background on this. About 2 weeks ago I had a hive that decided to swarm. This hive was massive with it's numbers, so I did what any self respecting beekeeper would do and made the best of the situation and used swarm cells and made splits. Out of these said splits 4 of them total, one has thrown me for a loop so to speak. When it was made, it had two nice swarm cells and plenty of brood bees. About a week ago they tore down the swarm cells killing the queens. Then I decided to see if I could get them to make their own. I gave them a frame with eggs in it. Had nearly 50 or more from one of my favorite hives. I put the frame in the center of the hive, went back 4 days later to see how many cells they created, to my surprise they did something i've not seen before. They removed every one of those eggs from that frame, and stored nectar in it. They didn't raise the eggs or nothing just discarded them. I got to looking in the hive after that to make sure they had plenty pollen/nectar and they do.

So now the dilema.. Do I try again with open brood this time just hatched, or split them up into other hives, or use them for a cell builder for a few extra queens.. Choices, choices.. The drone stock in the hives here are all fine, no kicking them out going on yet. Plenty of forage still left too.. So what's everyone's thoughts? Anyone else ever seen them get rid of eggs like that? :scratch:

 

[NY_BLUES]

Check again in a few more days, could be a virgin running around in that nuc.

 

[dleemc1]

sounds like they have a queen, she may not be laying yet

 

[Ron B.]

I've never seen this happen in a queenless hive, there must be a queen in there somewhere.

 

[kilocharlie]

+1.

Also. if they are back filling, they are still thinking about swarming. Break up the brood nest by taking 2 frames out (not right next to each other) and add empty frames - no foundation.

If it's still warm out at night, add a super (you can use foundation in the super if you want, though it might be getting a bit late in the year for thin surplus foundation - unless you have a strong nectar flow right now for making honey-in-the-comb).