# Hive Won't Stop Swarming



## magromarkbee (May 24, 2014)

Hi, one of my hives has produced a lot of queen cells... It has swarmed twice already and seems like its going to swarm once again. To make good use of these queen cells a moved a frame with queen cells to a weak hive with has a weak queen but I didn't kill the queen in that hive. I killed it 24 hours later. My worry is whether the old queen killed the capped queen during that 24 hours and whether that queen was alive in the first place as I moved it to the weak hive? Also why did this hive go crazy with producing queens is it genetic? Also when does a queen kill the rest of the queen cells within a hive? do they need to be making sound for that to happen or they can be in larvae state as well?


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## Struttinbuck (Mar 8, 2020)

magromarkbee said:


> Hi, one of my hives has produced a lot of queen cells... It has swarmed twice already and seems like its going to swarm once again. To make good use of these queen cells a moved a frame with queen cells to a weak hive with has a weak queen but I didn't kill the queen in that hive. I killed it 24 hours later. My worry is whether the old queen killed the capped queen during that 24 hours and whether that queen was alive in the first place as I moved it to the weak hive? Also why did this hive go crazy with producing queens is it genetic? Also when does a queen kill the rest of the queen cells within a hive? do they need to be making sound for that to happen or they can be in larvae state as well?


Are the cells along the bottom of the frames or up higher?


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## magromarkbee (May 24, 2014)

Struttinbuck said:


> Are the cells along the bottom of the frames or up higher?


They are at the top and side and middle there aren't at the bottom.


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## Struttinbuck (Mar 8, 2020)

magromarkbee said:


> They are at the top and side and middle there aren't at the bottom.


Then that sounds like supercedure or emergency queen cells. You need to see if you have a queen Still. And if you do, the colony does not like her. If you spot her check her for broken antennae and the such.
Well I have to say, that is where I would look but some of these other guys have more experience than me. I'm still a textbook guy.


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## Struttinbuck (Mar 8, 2020)

magromarkbee said:


> Hi, one of my hives has produced a lot of queen cells... It has swarmed twice already and seems like its going to swarm once again. To make good use of these queen cells a moved a frame with queen cells to a weak hive with has a weak queen but I didn't kill the queen in that hive. I killed it 24 hours later. My worry is whether the old queen killed the capped queen during that 24 hours and whether that queen was alive in the first place as I moved it to the weak hive? Also why did this hive go crazy with producing queens is it genetic? Also when does a queen kill the rest of the queen cells within a hive? do they need to be making sound for that to happen or they can be in larvae state as well?


When your hive swarmed, did you allow them to raise their own queen or did you replace her with a queen you bought?


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

The old queen in the weak hive did not kill the queen in the cell you put in. Virgin queens are the ones that go on a murderous rampage. If the hive seems intent on producing a third swarm, do an artificial swarm and split off half of the remaining bees and a queen cell or two. Once the bees get over their insanity, you can combine them back and choose the better of the two remaining queens. FYI, three swarms from a single strong hive is not uncommon, but a hive can literally swarm itself to death so intervention is often necessary.


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## magromarkbee (May 24, 2014)

JWPalmer said:


> The old queen in the weak hive did not kill the queen in the cell you put in. Virgin queens are the ones that go on a murderous rampage. If the hive seems intent on producing a third swarm, do an artificial swarm and split off half of the remaining bees and a queen cell or two. Once the bees get over their insanity, you can combine them back and choose the better of the two remaining queens. FYI, three swarms from a single strong hive is not uncommon, but a hive can literally swarm itself to death so intervention is often necessary.


That's true in fact I uncapped a queen cell which was developed and as soon as it was out it started stinging anything it found (Drones etc...).
So I should have done well. I used one of the frames with capped queens in another weak hive (killed the letargic queen). Killed off some off the remaining queen cups in the swarming hive as there were too much. Left 3 good cups in the swarming hive and fingers crossed I get good results with no more swarms.. but I feel there's still gonna be another swarm as the number of bees inside the swarming hive is high... I might do as you told me and perform an artificial split then merge them back together


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

If you let them keep swarming you end up with too many small hives that don't survive. Sadly, I know this from recent experience. I should have done some combining last summer.


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## magromarkbee (May 24, 2014)

AR1 said:


> If you let them keep swarming you end up with too many small hives that don't survive. Sadly, I know this from recent experience. I should have done some combining last summer.


What do you suggest one does when this behaviour commences? I literally had almost 15 queen cells... I lost count.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

15 is not all that many often they can have 20-30 if they get on a run.
if you have more than 3 or 4 it is a swarming impulse. Supercedure is typically 3 or less.

GG


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

magromarkbee said:


> What do you suggest one does when this behaviour commences? I literally had almost 15 queen cells... I lost count.


Swarming; It's Control and Prevention, by L.E. Snelgrove. 

Alex


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Swarming, It's Control and Prevention, by L. E. Snelgrove. (1935) Complete text of the book in English.




Full text of "Swarming It's Control And Prevention By L. E. Snelgrove ( 1935)"


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

What do I suggest? I suggest asking someone who knows more about beekeeping than me! I had WAY too much fun last summer catching and boxing swarms.


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## Wizardman73 (Apr 20, 2020)

magromarkbee said:


> Hi, one of my hives has produced a lot of queen cells... It has swarmed twice already and seems like its going to swarm once again. To make good use of these queen cells a moved a frame with queen cells to a weak hive with has a weak queen but I didn't kill the queen in that hive. I killed it 24 hours later. My worry is whether the old queen killed the capped queen during that 24 hours and whether that queen was alive in the first place as I moved it to the weak hive? Also why did this hive go crazy with producing queens is it genetic? Also when does a queen kill the rest of the queen cells within a hive? do they need to be making sound for that to happen or they can be in larvae state as well?


Is there honey above the brood? the hive may be honey bound and out of room for the queen to lay


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## dleemc1 (Dec 31, 2012)

AR1 said:


> If you let them keep swarming you end up with too many small hives that don't survive. Sadly, I know this from recent experience. I should have done some combining last summer.


its early they have all summer to build up, once those virigen queens get mated and start laying they will build up quickly, if they are real small you can give them a little brood from another hive, just what they can cover and take care of that really helps during the month and1/2 till they have there own brood hatching. i`m different I LOVE SWARMES.


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## magromarkbee (May 24, 2014)

Wizardman73 said:


> Is there honey above the brood? the hive may be honey bound and out of room for the queen to lay


Yes they were but its too late now... next time im gonna leave an extra super for laying and then a queen excluder and 2 super on top of it. Cos this hive could have been a monster if it hadnt been honey bound


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## mtnmyke (Apr 27, 2017)

I've had hives that were swarming one after another, but in looking back can find my error in every single one.

For example:

I had a hive that wanted to swarm so I removed the queen and put her into a weaker colony. Good location, but just wasn't a good queen in there.

The hive I took her from swarmed, next day swarmed, next day swarmed, etc.

I figured a virgin would emerge and kill off the others. Wrong! She just swarmed. Next day, another virgin swarmed, etc.

I finally had to break down the colony where I found 3 more virgins emerging and one headed out the door for another swarm!

In my error, I should have created an aritifical swarm to knock down the hive numbers and then knocked down all but a couple cells - or put them into queen castles. Instead, I gave them the feeling they swarmed but everyone was still packed in there!

Even one step further, I should have added supers above the nest a little earlier to give them more space. They've never been swarmy bees until this happened.

Hopefully you can learn and next time do things differently - as you already mentioned.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

dleemc1 said:


> its early they have all summer to build up, once those virigen queens get mated and start laying they will build up quickly, if they are real small you can give them a little brood from another hive, just what they can cover and take care of that really helps during the month and1/2 till they have there own brood hatching. i`m different I LOVE SWARMES.


I love swarms too. But last year I had hives that would not stop swarming. The main hive swarmed multiple times and it's daughter hives also swarmed. The dink hives swarmed. Not the bees fault. I had them in small hives because I had not built enough boxes so they were stuck and had no where to grow except swarming.


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