Swarm or emergency queen cells - did I bump off my Queen?

[Rooster007]

Just when you think all is going OK and swarming might be calming down something new for me to try to figure out.

On inspection today, one of my hives that had swarmed in early May had more capped QC's than I've ever seen before.
They were on multiple frames mainly at the bottom but the odd one on the sides and away from the edges, so look like they were drawn from cells and not cups.
Some were quite short and not didn't seem to be extended a lot and also plenty of loaded ones.
I didn't see her majesty.

Just for a bit of history, this Q had been building up nicely and is this years as I lost a swarm from this hive so she was new, laying well and was only marked on the 13/06 on inspection.
There was no QC's or cups then when I inspected the last couple of times and hasn't been since May.
I inspected on 20th and 26/06 but there was no QC or cups but was eggs.
I don't believe I missed a swarm but there are a lot of bees in the BB and super.

Today there was larvae and sealed but couldn't see any eggs and no really young larvae.

I've done a vertical split with snelgrove board and put 2 brood frames on the fresh BB on the bottom (no QC's) and the rest on top.

I also removed some of the QC's from the top BB but not all of them.

Have I done the right thing by doing an AS just in case or should I of left them if they were emergency cells?
Could I have bumped the Q on last inspection or when marking her and they have gone into emergency mode?

Any suggestions for the next few weeks?

 

[drex]

Sounds like emergency cells, by description and no young larvae. I would have left them alone, or to hedge my bets have knocked down all but one or two QC's

 

[Woodland bees]

Sounds like emergency cells, by description and no young larvae. I would have left them alone, or to hedge my bets have knocked down all but one or two QC's

I had this on a hive this year, hive going well with Q, eggs and BIAS; the next inspection no eggs or Q and about 20 Q cells. As I had a couple of new queens in nucs I broke all the cells down apart from one and it raised a new Q which is doing well.

What would have happened if I left all the Q cells? They were all over the hive, would the colony really just raise one Q and kill the rest or would it have produced a swarm of some sort?

 

[drex]

Emergency cells are built to replace a queen, with no desire to reproduce the colony i.e. To swarm. Swarm preps start a week or two before we see queen cells and once started will continue until they do swarm.
After reading Wally Shaw I now adhere to his philosophy that emergency cells do not need weeding.
Bees do not read the books though.

 

[Rooster007]

Thanks Drex, I was reading up from Wally Shaw before I did the split yesterday and was in 2 minds as to whether to leave them to it in case they were emergency cells but I guess the thought of them swarming got the better of me.
Its only been a day so I guess I could swap the snelgrove board for a Q excluder above the 2 supers and then see what happens in around 10 day when queens should start hatching.
At the moment it shouldn't be too hard to bring the 2 BB's together again.

 

[drex]

I kept my mouth shut in my first post, but I did think your vertical split had achieved nothing, other than to complicate your life, and personally I would have undone it.
Never can be sure with bees, they will do what they will do. I think they know best and I try to keep my fiddling to a minimum, ( except for swarm prevention) . Even then I can AS totally by the book and they will sometimes still go at some point.