[Sandpelican]

So I am a new beekeeper. Started with a package last July. Today When checking the hive I find that my brood box and super are both full of capped brood, honey and pollen. Also noticed a few uncapped but no new eggs. I have lots of swarm cells, some that are open. I have more bees than ever with so much capped brood. So are they going to swarm and leave me with nothing? I added another super on and did a powder sugar treatment just in case they stay around. What are your thoughts and should I do something else?

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

Welcome to Beesource!

It sounds as though your bees backfilled the broodnest and started some queen cells, then swarmed. The original queen likely left with the first swarm, and additional swarms may happen with virgins from some of the unopened cells (after they hatch). It is also possible that the potential queens in those unopened cells have been killed if one of the cells has hatched.

What to do? You may get many different opinions on this.
One option would be to split the hive (making sure a non-dead QC is in each split) and increase your hive count.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

I agree with rader.

 

[Sandpelican]

Thankyou Mr.Beeman and Rader, tomorrow I will do a split. Will be reading up on that tonight!