[aristaeus]

We have had a lot of windy days of late and as a result I have been a little negligent with hive inspections. I went into a hive a week ago and, predictably, there were tons of capped swarm cells/capped drones etc. I watched each day this past week to see if they would swarm, only a couple of days were really suitable. No swarming so far. However, I seem to recall that once the queen cells are capped the hive is pretty much going to swarm and it is difficult to stop them swarming.

Would it help, or work, for me to do a 50/50 split, with swarm cells in each new hive. No need to find the queen but assume she will either survive or be killed when a new queen emerges. I do have spare built out foundation and was planning on building each box to provide lots of nurse bees and open/capped brood, room for laying and several frames of food. I figure the queenless box will wait for an emerging queen whereas the queenright box may not swarm and utilize the new space.

Is this a logical approach or am I further weakening a hive that is going to swarm anyway.

Any input appreciated.

 

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

Sounds doable to me, but if the cells were capped the math says a swarm is due any day now. Maybe you will have the opportunity to catch the swarm & still make several splits with the remaining cells?

 

[Arnie]

I've done just what you're talking about. On a hive that was bursting at the seams and had swarm cells. It worked.

 

[aristaeus]

Thanks for the feedback, good to know for the next time. I went into the hive yesterday and found several swarm cells which had emerged so my guess is that they must have swarmed within the past week or so and I just didn't see it.

No brood so I assume an emerged virgin queen is in there not yet laying. I will check back in next week to see if she has mated and is laying.

Thanks again for the input, I am always keen to learn.