Swarm Help

[beekeeper120]

First year beekeeper, and made a big mistake ( if you can really call it that)..  I had a swarm a couple days ago, because I was watching the frames and not the amount of bees in the box.  They only built out 71/2 out 10 and held there for the last month or so, and I was waiting for another frame to be built out before I added another deep. (lesson learned)..Any way moving forward, Since the first swarm about a week ago I have had 2 smaller swarms I am assuming came from the hive (last two were a little bigger then a softball.  I did an inspection on the hive and saw at least 4 more queen cups on 2 different frames all capped.  

I have since put another deep on the hive, checker boarded the deep and gave them a bunch of room.  I also kept the super on because its 80% filled (lichees and mangos blooming).  My question now is is there anything else I can do?  I thought about moving some queen cups out to avoid more swarms, but if the original queen left with the original swarm, I should be queen-less now and would think I need to keep the queen cups in the hive so they can make a new queen.  Any thing else I can do?

PS I live in South Florida so I really don't have winters and this one like the rest has been warmer.  I have plenty of drones from all my hives, which is normal year around, down here. No Mites or SHB in the hive, and other then the swarms the hive looks good and healthy.

Any help or advise would be grateful.

Regards

[FRAMEshift]

There is almost never a case where it's better for a hive to remove queen cells.  You might remove some (but not all) if you wanted to use them to start new queens in another hive.  You might remove all of them if you don't like the genetics of the hive and want to add back a queen or queen cells from another hive.  

In all other cases, it's better to trust the bees to handle the queen cells.  It's common for bees to build queen cells and then tear them down again.  I guess they like to keep some ready just in case.  And if they need them to supercede, it's best to trust the bees' judgement there too.

Are you sure you don't have varroa?  That would be very unusual.  And in South Florida it is unusual not to have some SHB.  If you are not treating your bees with chemicals and you have no varroa, I would like to order a nuc from you for immediate delivery.   :evil:

Are your bees extremely aggressive?   I hope they are not AHB.

[beekeeper120]

Yea I am sure I have no varroa.  I only have 2 hives so I can take my time with them, My wife and I have bees as our hobby and we photograph the frames to be looked at later, We do this to see the changes, in the hive and the neat things you can miss when you are in the process of inspecting (First year beeks so everything is an adventure :) ).  Anyway from the photos in the last 7 months I have had the hive, I have only seen 2 varroa and the 2nd varroa I saw was a month or two after the first.  Digital cameras rock BTW :) you can get up close and personal.

I have had minor bouts with SHB, but the several I have had have been in the trap.  Bees are very gentle.  I don't even use smoke, just keep it handy in case, and the other hive I have gets testy sometimes..

[danno]

All colonies in the states have varroa and most of the world for that matter.  

[Kathyp]

i wouldn't do anything now.  in the future, you can pull the queen, some brood and workers, and make a split.  by taking the queen, the hive will hopefully think it has swarmed and you will end up with two hives.  don't remove the cells that are there now or you will surely end up queenless.

[Bleemus]

Get a capping scratcher fork and drag it through a bunch of drone comb that is capped. You will likely see varroa on at least a few of the pupae you pull out.

[iddee]

""They only built out 71/2 out 10 and held there for the last month or so,""

That sounds like they filled the outer drawn frames with pollen. The queen will see a solid pollen frame as a hive wall and will not cross it. Then the bees do the same and they over crowd within the drawn frames. When I find full frames of pollen, I move them to the wall of the hive. It gets the bees to use much more of the hive.

[FRAMEshift]

I have only seen 2 varroa and the 2nd varroa I saw was a month or two after the first.  

I would suggest a sticky drop board to collect a 24 hr. sample of varroa that fall through a screen.   If you really don't have varroa, that is amazing.  Please let us know if you have a zero mite drop.