Another new-bee question

[kenglert]

Hey guys, 2nd year beekeeping here so I still have a lot of things that confound me everytime I open the hive.  I installed my bees in the beginning of April.  Fed them (just took the feeder out today, actually).  Things went well.  Good brood nest and alot of activity.  Added a super.  Got a cold spell and the queen moved to the top box but no complaints as she seemed to be doing well and had a good brood nest there, too.  Today I check there's a still good brood up top (7 frames, 9 with comb drawn) but the bottom is still lagging (2 frames with brood, alot of comb, though).  Also, the top box seemed to have some swarm cells.  They were actually pupae (sp??).  This is the first time I've seen anything like it and I thought they were worms!!  I'm pretty sure they were swarm cells, though.  Anyway, I got rid of them.  I also switched the top box to the bottom and removed the feeder from the bottom and added 2 more frames (in the center).  Did I do the right thing??  I'm assuming my queen is still there since there was a good brood nest up top, but I never saw her.  My plan is to let them be for a week or so and then check again.  Any advice on what else to do??
Thanks
Kurt

[L Daxon]

As I have read on this site many times, be careful about cutting out swarm cells.  That doesn't necessarily stop the swarm impulse and if the old queen leaves with the swarm your hive will be queenless.  Sometimes a queen will stop laying for a short while before they swarm and there won't be any eggs to make a new queen with.

Don't routinely cut out swarm cells.

[AllenF]

If you are worried about queen cells, just pull out the whole frame with the queen cell and a frame of honey (2 frames) and place it into a queen castle.  Make yourself a queen for "just in case".

[mikecva]

Just a thought: you might want to add to your location: in 'name your city' as advice will change depending on your country/state.

Most of what I have read says to leave the center of the colony intact unless you are splitting or responding to an emergency. When you must remove the center two frames, be sure you know where the queen is.

[sc-bee]

>Also, the top box seemed to have some swarm cells.  They were actually pupae (sp??).  This is the first time I've seen anything like it and I thought they were worms!!  I'm pretty sure they were swarm cells, though.

Capped cell resembles a p-nut a little. Type in honeybee queen cell on google and hit image search not web search. Will give you pictures.
You thought they were worms?? After you opened cells? Wax worms form a cocoon with a worm inside but you should see alot of damage at that point if it were wax worms. Verify the queen cell pictures.

>I'm assuming my queen is still there since there was a good brood nest up top, but I never saw her.  My plan is to let them be for a week or so and then check again.  Any advice on what else to do??

Not necessarily a good assumption in particular if the cells were already capped. You need to verify eggs in the hive to verify presence of the queen. If no eggs could be a virgin queen ---- alot of variables just based on what you posted.

[kenglert]

Thanks for the responses everyone.  I googled queen cells and that's definately what I saw.  The cells were open, so what I'm assuming I saw was the pupae (at least based on the google pics of queen cell pupae).  As far as putting the frames in the middle, the brood nest was in the top box.  The bottom box, where I place the 2 frames, was mostly drawn out comb.  I hope that was o.k.  My main concern now, though, is that I don't have a queen.  The hive has been going strong since I put it in.  I feel like I have (had??) a good queen.  She had a good brood pattern and seemed to be laying a lot of eggs.  To be honest, after I saw the queen cells, I kind of lost my focus and didn't do an adequate inspection of the rest of the hive.  I don't know if there were any eggs.   I know there was a lot of capped brood but beyond that I"m not certain.  I really disturbed their home alot today.  When should I go check again?  I'll try to get some pictures next time. 
Thanks again for all the help.
Kurt

[Kathyp]

is this your only hive?  if not, and if you see no eggs on the recheck (tomorrow?),  i'd take a frame of eggs from another hive and put it in there.  if the queen is still there, no harm done.  if she'd already gone, you have given them what they need to make a new one.  it will also give you a good indication of whether you have a virgin in there that had just not started laying.

in the future, if you find queen cells, take the old queen and some brood, food, and workers. make a split.  that way (hopefully) they think they have swarmed and you now have another hive.   :-D

[Brian D. Bray]

To summerize:

A hive can swarm at any point from when a queen cells is capped and the queen cell hatches.  If the hive swarmed prior to the discovery of the queen cells, the removal of those cells renders the hive queenless. 

The recommended way to deal with queen cells is to split, never remove.  Splitting allows for greater odds of obtaining a surviving queen.  Removal of queen cells can be a death sentence.