Overcrowding after super removal

[gar1990]

Hi I have just removed my supers from the hives, the strongest hive is overflowing with bees, is this ok will they fit in if it rains? Or should I do anything? I have just put in the apivar treatment today so can’t put any supers back on top or bottom for 6 weeks min. Super above is there as an eke for the feeder, they have no access to it. Photo taken at 8.50 pm thanks

 

[Swarm]

They should be fine, how many supers did you clear?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi I have just removed my supers from the hives, the strongest hive is overflowing with bees, is this ok will they fit in if it rains? Or should I do anything? I have just put in the apivar treatment today so can’t put any supers back on top or bottom for 6 weeks min. Super above is there as an eke for the feeder, they have no access to it. Photo taken at 8.50 pm thanks

If they have room for the feed you are giving they should be fine.

 

[gar1990]

So update on this..
I did final inspections on all the hives 4 weeks ago. The two that we removed supers from had no brood or eggs. the two that didn't crop had a very small patch of brood and eggs so wasn't too worried.
the hive to the left of the photo had no brood or eggs but i saw the queen during the inspection. that just left the hive with bees spilling out. again wasn't worried at that stage.

fast forward to now and I had been checking boards for mite drop, all looking good but the hive in question had no real signs of uncapping on it whereas the other three had lots.

I'm wondering if they swarmed? the spilling out in this photo only lasted a couple of days then they were all inside. on the final inspection i did not see any queen cells. but that was around 4 weeks from the photo.

Im going to remove the apivar this week, my question is, if i open that hive and have a quick look and see no signs of eggs etc or the queen what is the best plan? i can unite with the nuc hive, but how can i be certain it is queenless at this time of year, I can't really be messing round with test frames etc i assume?

If I do unite, the nuc has fixed floor and i have no brood boxes left so would have to use 2 supers, what would be the best method once they are united with newspaper to get them into a single brood?

thanks

ps I am hoping that there will be some eggs or brood when I look but just trying to be prepared in advance

 

[Swarm]

Remove the apivar when it is due. I wouldn't poke about looking for signs of laying though, there is a point when you've done all you can.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Im going to remove the apivar this week, my question is, if i open that hive and have a quick look and see no signs of eggs etc or the queen what is the best plan? i can unite with the nuc hive, but how can i be certain it is queenless at this time of year, I can't really be messing round with test frames etc i assume?

Your best plan is to leave them alone and don't even look
That's what I would do

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Your best plan is to leave them alone and don't even look
That's what I would do

there comes a time to put a stop on faffing and fiddling an let the bees sort themselves out one way or another

 

[echidna]

I'm not disagreeing with the replies above, but I think it's sometimes quite difficult for new beekeepers to be comfortable with not knowing everything is as it should be. The main problem is, at this time of year, there's less chance that interfering is actually going to be beneficial, and if you can't react to what you see, there's no point lifting frames other than to remove the apivar. As you said, being sure a hive is suitable for uniting is difficult when it's cold for inspections, eggs aren't readily available as test frames, and there could be multiple queens per hive due to late supercedures.
It sounds like you should get through winter with at least some of your hives so, that should give you some confidence that you can let the others sort themselves out, or not as the case may be. In previous years I have done the wrong thing when I thought no eggs in autumn required action. It turned out there was a queen present who was on a break when I thought she would have been making the all-important winter bees.
I hope it works out whether you decide to take a look or not.