# Questions about swarming and splits



## blacksnake1986 (Mar 3, 2017)

I have 2 of my hives that came from 5 frame nucs this spring I bought they were jam packed with brood but no queen cells yet so i put them in a single 10 frame deep. Then In a few weeks I saw queen cells so i thought that i would wait till they were capped to do some splits. Well i should have done them immediately because as soon as cells where capped my original queens swarmed out and I caught one of them. 

So i have inspected both hives several times and they are queenless no eggs but they both have queen cells still in them so i figured that they would produce a new queen and everything would be back to normal but this morning they were swarming again. luckily I caught it So my question is what do i need to do to get queens back in my original hives? there are like 4 -5 cells in each of the original hives now still unhatched. I was considering busting them up in 5 frame boxes and just put 1 frame with a cell per box and divide the other resources to stop this swarming and get some queens back. What would you guys do in this situation? I'm completely open to any suggestions.


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## rpharr (Dec 24, 2013)

I am not as experienced as some, but here is what I would do. I would not split them. A single deep that has already swarmed twice is probably getting a little weak. I would go into the hive and find the two best looking queen cells. Kept them in the hive and destroy all the rest. This would give some insurance if one of the kept queen cells is a dud. But it will kept a bunch of virgin queens from hatching and swarming. Hope this helps. Good luck


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## blacksnake1986 (Mar 3, 2017)

That's what I will do today after church if they don't swarm again before I get in them. Another question do the old queens always leave out before queen cells are fully developed?


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## billk (Apr 10, 2012)

blacksnake1986 said:


> Another question do the old queens always leave out before queen cells are fully developed?


In my experience they will swarm with the original (old) queen on the next clear day following the capping of the queen cells.


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## kbar1973 (Mar 18, 2015)

They will swarm just prior to the QCs being capped. I have witnessed hives swarm with a virgin queen. Watched mine swarm and then go back into the hive. Noticed a small ball of bees on the ground in front of the hive which contained a virgin queen which quickly flew away. Could be what you are seeing depending on how long between the swarms


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## blacksnake1986 (Mar 3, 2017)

i assumed they were swarming out to leave they assembled in a tree about 30 yards away with a cluster probably half the size of a basketball. i went in today and removed all but 2 cells in the one hive and will fix the other one tomorrow. how many frames are you using for splits i have been using 2 frames 1 with capped worker brood and the other with honey/pollen/brood on it. It Seems to work but i have heard of people using single frame splits.


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