Loads of queen cells

[whynothot]

Been away for ten days and had no-one to check my hives.

Checking my two brood box national hive this evening, noticed the top brood box had at least 20 queen cells in it, both open, sealed and being built. Guess my bees must have swarmed whilst I was away unfortunately.

Avoided the new beekeeper panic and didnt cut all the QCs out, but what should I do now?

Don't want to lost all my bees to cast swarms as well.

Didn't see the queen in either box, but it was getting late and windy and didnt have the time to have a really good look.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I would take out all the queen cells bar one large unsealed one. Mark the top of the frame with a drawing pin. Go back in five days and take away any others the bees might have made or you missed on your last look.
Leave to simmer for three weeks.

Oh....and....bookmark this page
http://www.wbka.com/images/education/a012queencells.pdf

 

[oliver90owner]

Most likely she has gone, but not certain. Check once more?

If she has gone I would make a split for insurance and reduce the cells in each part to two, if sealed, or you could just leave one if open. Two cells should not result in casts because if a swarm has left already you are splitting it further - but there is always a risk!

Oh, and check around - the swarm may still be hung up somewhere.

 

[itma]

My suggestion - stick a swarm board between the two broods, so a vertical split. And leave one QC in each brood box, rearranging frames as need be, since they are going to be individual colonies for a few weeks.
/ assuming that she has gone and wasn't found on re-inspection.

Swarm board? Visualise this - a standard crownboard with holes, cover the holes with mesh, and make a 2 inch wide notch in the rim on one side to be an entrance to the upper hive. Now ideally, the upper rim ought to be higher, 22mm like a normal floor, and if you were making one from scratch, you'd probably make one big hole in the middle and put mesh on both sides so that bees on opposite sides can't quite reach each other ...
The mesh allows the smells to mix, so you can easily recombine them.
But the point of splitting is to double your chance of getting a mated worker-laying queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Two brood boxes I didn't notice that ....long day. Yes qc in each