queen cup on bottom of frame and swarm?

[tlynn]

Yesterday I found these cells on the bottom of a frame in a 2 deep hive (bottom box) that experienced a supercedure less than a month ago.  I gave her a second brood box with new duraglit 3 weeks ago today and the second shot is a frame representative of 6 of the frames in this new box.  I am going to add a 3rd brood box this week and plan to do splits in a month when new queens arrive.  Do you think they're planning to swarm, even with the new real estate they have?

[Kathyp]

nice brood pattern.  add the box.  is it time for honey yet? 

maybe no swarm.  found the same in a super today and the hive appears queenless. maybe a virgin around somewhere waiting for drones and weather. however, if that is what your whole hive looks like, you  won't have much room soon.  then you'll get a swarm almost certainly.

[Cheryl]

It is bees' natural tendency to swarm. Swarming is a good thing; it means a healthy colony. Catching it before they swarm and doing a split sometimes saves the work of trying to catch the swarm later -- but neither is foolproof.

And WOW, that's a lot of capped brood in the second photo!

[tlynn]

nice brood pattern.  add the box.  is it time for honey yet? 

maybe no swarm.  found the same in a super today and the hive appears queenless. maybe a virgin around somewhere waiting for drones and weather. however, if that is what your whole hive looks like, you  won't have much room soon.  then you'll get a swarm almost certainly.

Yes, there's a citrus flow on now.  One super mostly capped so far and another half full.  And hive is solid brood like that in box 2 and box one in more stages of development but full just the same.  There is a good bit of drone comb on a couple frames as well.  Thought I'd have a little more time and so scrambled to order new woodenware last week when I saw the second new box full of eggs and larvae last week.

[Cheryl]

That's quite a queen you've got there!! The supersedure was a good one! Congrats!

[Michael Bush]

If there is no larvae in the cup I wouldn't consider it to mean anything.

[tlynn]

If there is no larvae in the cup I wouldn't consider it to mean anything.

They were both empty.

[Brian D. Bray]

If there is no larvae in the cup I wouldn't consider it to mean anything.

A lot of hives, regardless of race, maintain queen cups all year long.  They will make some, tear some down, build others and tear those down.   Until I see and egg, larvae, or capped queen cell I ignore them.  Russians build a lot more of them than do Italians.