Swarm prevention

[Toekneetwo]

Just opened up my 2 hives after watching one of them swarm and disappear over the horizon to find the other hive has at least a dozen queen cells which are sealed over. Question is should I just leave them to swarm or is there something I can do to prevent this happening at what appears to be a late stage. I have caught a small cast that came out but the hive is busy and I reckon there may be more to come.
I have set up a bait hive next to it but would like to avoid losing more bees if possible.
Any advice you can give to me on this subject please?

 

[snoop]

Why not split the frames with the queen cells & make up a few nucs. Leaving one good queen cell in each nuc Leave one frame with a queen cell in the main hive ,

You can always recombine them when the queens have hatched & mated rmoving all but your best queen when you have assessed their laying patterns

If you don't do something they could keep throwing casts until they are too weak to survive. Each new virgin queen will leave with her sub sisters.

 

[huntsman666]

<Just opened up my 2 hives after watching one of them swarm and disappear over the horizon to find the other hive has at least a dozen queen cells which are sealed over.>

Are you sure they swarmed from the hive without sealed queen cells? If so, then you may have one hive already swarmed and the one you watched in the process of swarming.

Sealed queen cells is an indicator that the bees in that hive have already swarmed with the old queen.

If you can see one unsealed queen cell that has a larva in it, I'd leave that and break down the rest, sealed and unsealed. Be very gentle so as not to dislodge the larva, i.e. brush if necessary but don't shake.

If no open cell, leave only two sealed cells.

 

[Toekneetwo]

Its possible that they have both already swarmed as I am not around enough to watch out for it. The 2 hives seem really strong and have been thriving on the rapeseed that is surrounding us. They are possibly both sufficiently strong to split up in to nucleus but that goes beyond my sphere of knowledge at the moment.
I took a look in the hives just now and there is no sign of eggs or larvae but plenty capped brood. There appears to be queen cells that are capped and also empty ones too. The bees in the garden seem agitated at the moment and will come after me even when away from the hives.
Thanks for your advice......very much appreciated.