>Last season I had chaulk brood in the colony. I added a slatted rack and got the bees through the season mainly by feeding them toward late summer as their stores were not that great.I had added a super and decided to leave it on for the winter.I opened the hive on Friday and found about 10 queen swarm cells on bottom of super and in between first and second hive body. I scraped them off.
I never destroy swarm cells. It will not stop them from swarming.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htmhttp://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htmWere they capped? Uncapped? If they were capped it's likely they already swarmed and are now hopelessly queenless.
> I also saw a supersedure cell in the middle of one of the frames in second body that was already open (looked fairly old to me, ...but not sure).
If you had swarm cells on the bottom I'd call them all swarm cells if they ahve larvae in them. I'd call it a queen cup if it doesn't.
> I have eggs,larvae in different stages of growth, pollen and honey in usual pattern, but the egg laying is sporadic....some of the cells still have old chaulk brood. The workers are busy cleaning out cells and throwing the chaulk brood out. I took the super off (it has old medicated honey from last autumn's feeding) and left it outside hive hoping the bees would rob and clean out, then I could put excluder on and super back. I don't have another super yet, I just ordered one today. What should I do????help!
For the chaulkbrood I'd try to move the hive to place with full sun all day. Is there a SBB on it? Do you have any ventilation at the top? A notched inner cover? If the inner cover is notched I'd slide the top cover forward. If there is a SBB I'd open the tray half way. If it's in the shade I'd put it in the sun. I would requeen any hive that had more than just a little chalkbrood for just a short period unless I though ti was just that I needed to put them in the sun and give them ventilation. If that didn't clear it right up I would requeen.