ok so I have been pulling swarm cells for the past couple weeks every 3 days. I found one two days ago that was capped and they had started back filling the brood nest with nectar. I moved that frame and two other frames to a nuc. I pulled all other swarm cells and hoped that would stop them from swarming. Today I saw them begin to swarm. I prepared a 5 over 5 nuc with a frame of brood comb and some LGO. I stood in front of the hive and saw the queen crawl out and begin to fly, I grabbed her out of the air and clipped her wing and caged her and returned her to her hive in the cage. what is my best course of action now?
presuming the swarm came back or did not leave with out the queen, they will try to leave when a virgin emerges. once they "start" the swarm impulse it is difficult to stop.As I do not wish to prescribe ,I will state what I would do. So if the queen is still caged, I would move the hive away with the boxes of brood and stores. Then put 4 drawn combs in a box of foundation, center the comb. leave this and the cadged queen in the old location , somewhat a fly back split. let her out in 48hours , I would hope there is at least 2 queen cells, I would then split them in 1/2 with a queen cell in each. place on new locations. the field bees would go back to the old location.
goals
1) separate the field bees and Queen from the brood and nurse bees. when 2 of the 4 are missing they are less likely to swarm.
2) make thirds, then if 1 of the thirds still swarm you are out 1/6 of your bees instead of 1/2
tuning:
3)leave 1 frame of stores with the queen, in case of inclement weather.
4)Can do more than 2 splits, I one time split 30 frames 6 ways. it is possible 1 of the new queen does not mate so recombining may need to happen
5) if you are worried she may still leave/abscond, leave 1 frame of open brood with nurse bees at the old location as an anchor, you did clip so this should help.
good luck, nice catch you bought some time, maybe 4 days tops... she normally leaves when capped Q cells, they cap at 8 days, hatch at 16. You are likely somewhere in the 9-13 day point of the Virgin hatching.
6) if you absolutely do not want increase keep the best queen and recombine after swarm season. Swarm Q cells are my favorite kind so treat this as a opportunity.
7)if you have a dud hive needing re queen, pinch it and give one of the sealed Q cells, frame and all.
GG