What to do to prevent swarming

[Tigerfansga]

I am sure there are posts on this, but I wanted to get my specific situation and get some opinions on what I have done and what I should do. I inspected my strongest hive (my other hives are new and just starting to build up), and we are just starting our main nectar flow here in Georgia.

About a week ago, I added a medium honey super with drawn comb on top of the medium and full size brood boxes with a queen excluder. I also put some honey on top of the bars of the honey sup to encourage the bees to enter up into the sup. When I opened the hive there were a few bees in the honey sup, but not many and nothing stored in it. On the bottom of every frame in the med brood sup that had brood on it were swarm cells. I cut out all the swarm cells that I saw. I also removed the queen excluder and added another honey super to give the bees ample room.

Have I passed the point of no return and need to do a split? What kind of split? Any suggestions so I can get through the main nectar flow without half my bees flying away?

[BjornBee]

Here is a bit of information on cutting out swarm cells

http://www.bjornapiaries.com/badbeekeeping.html

[VolunteerK9]

Speaking from experience,  never cut out swarm cells. Its a sure fire way to end up with a queenless hive. They have already made the preparations to swarm, so cutting them all out isnt going to take the 'urge' out of them. I would simply remove the queen along with a frame or two of brood and pollen/honey and do a split.

[Tigerfansga]

So I have screwed up big time. When should I do the split? I cutout the swarm cells on the 19th. The weather report looks like the earliest I will have a non-rainy day will be Saturday the 23rd, or should I wait longer to let the bees start some new swarm cells?

[FRAMEshift]

As long as you leave fresh eggs in the original hive, you can do the split immediately.   That may stop any swarming and the bees will make a new queen from the eggs.

As far as I know, the only time you might want to cut out queen cells is if you don't like the genetics of that hive and you have a better queen cell to substitute.  If the cell you are putting in might be younger than the existing queen cells that you don't like, you would need to cut the existing cells out.

[VolunteerK9]

As long as you leave fresh eggs in the original hive, you can do the split immediately.   That may stop any swarming and the bees will make a new queen from the eggs.

As far as I know, the only time you might want to cut out queen cells is if you don't like the genetics of that hive and you have a better queen cell to substitute.  If the cell you are putting in might be younger than the existing queen cells that you don't like, you would need to cut the existing cells out.

I agree

[BjornBee]

As long as you leave fresh eggs in the original hive, you can do the split immediately.   That may stop any swarming and the bees will make a new queen from the eggs.

As far as I know, the only time you might want to cut out queen cells is if you don't like the genetics of that hive and you have a better queen cell to substitute.  If the cell you are putting in might be younger than the existing queen cells that you don't like, you would need to cut the existing cells out.

I agree

Ok....now wipe your nose off.  :lau: