[Haveuseen1?]

Roughly 3 weeks ago, I made a split into a 5 frame nuc. 2 frames with brood, 1 with honey, and two drawn frames. I dropped a queen in there that was from last year. I did not open them up again until two days ago. Well they are doing quite well. So well that they have 5 queen cells and 1 cup along the bottom of one of the frames that was brood. I put another 5 frame nuc on top with 4 drawn comb and one undrawn to give them more room. It may be to late.

 

[squarepeg]

2 frames of brood turns into 4 frames of bees in 3 weeks.

 

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

So well that they have 5 queen cells and 1 cup along the bottom of one of the frames that was brood. I put another 5 frame nuc on top with 4 drawn comb and one undrawn to give them more room. It may be to late.

Not may, but it is to late if there was 5 cells. How far along were the cells?

 

[Haveuseen1?]

They were all capped.

 

[Oldtimer]

Is the question what should you do?

If so, check to see if they have a laying queen. If they don't, do nothing, or maybe just kill some of the smallest queen cells.

If they do have a laying queen but you want them to swarm, again, do nothing. They will swarm in the next few days, maybe today.

If they have a laying queen but you don't want them to swarm, you could split the hive leaving the queen in the moved split with most of the bees, and a couple of the queen cells at the original site.

Or if they have a laying queen but you don't want to split them, kill the queen cells, relieve congestion best you can, and hope. Re check for queen cells weekly till end of swarming season.

 

[BlueRidgeBees]

Sounds like the queen may be dead unless you saw her or eggs in your most recent inspection. I wouldn't think a new nuc would prepare to swarm that fast unless the queen didn't have enough room to lay.

 

[DeepCreek]

You mentioned that you "dropped" in a queen from last year. If you dropped in a queen from a different hive immediately after creating the split, they probably killed her. You didn't say where the queen came from.

 

[Haveuseen1?]

The queen was not my favorite, she was steadfast but never really overly productive compared to my other queens. I caught the queen in the hive, and moved her and 2 frames of brood to the nuc. Released the queen from the little queen catcher. There is capped brood in the hive, but I did not look for the queen. Maybe they decided to replace her, which I would be fine with. I will look for her this afternoon and see how things are going.